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Hollinger Corp. 
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A STUDY OF THE 
HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
IN MAINE AND THE 
EVOLUTION OF OUR 
PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



BY THE STATE 

SUPERINTENDENT 

OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

OF MAINE, (^fff^- n '^^^^^^ 



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SEP 21 ,v07 

D. Of' a 




HISTORY OF EDUCATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF 
THE PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM IN MAINE. 



In this, the first year of the new century, it seems fitting 
to give as briefly as possible, a history of education in Maine and 
of the development of our present school system. As Maine 
was, until 1820, a part of the present state of Massachusetts and 
as there were settlers in Maine even before the landing of the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, any history of education in Maine 
or of the. origin and growth of our school system must necessarily 
begin with a description of the first efforts in that direction by 
the colonists in other sections of New England. These pioneer 
settlers, who had fled from the tyranny of the mother country 
and established homes in the wilderness of the New World, were 
a God-fearing people. It was their conscientious adherence to 
their own form of religious belief and worship that drove them 
to these shores, and, stern bigots though they were, they left an 
impress upon the people, the manners, customs, social relations 
and educational institutions of New England which will endure 
for all time. 

It is to the influence of Puritanism, softened by the kindly 
teuch of time, that we owe that pronounced moral sentiment, 
that reverence for religious things, and also that interest in the 
education of the young which is observable throughout this 
portion of our country. 

As they were pre-eminently a religious people and as their 
reverence for God and the Bible was the foundation of their 
civil and religious institutions, it was natural that their clergy 
should be the first teachers of the youth of these forest settle- 
ments. Before even the primitive school was organized with 
the pastor as teacher, in these wilderness homes the little ones 
received instruction at their mother's knee and were there taught 
to read with, in many cases, no text-book but the family Bible. 



The pioneer settlers of Massachusetts belonged to the intelli- 
gent and in many cases well educated class. They were not 
adventurers coming to these western shores with the greed of 
gold or with a desire to regain fortunes lost in the old world. 
Neither were they ignorant peasants sent here by a tyrant ruler 
to form new colonies for the enlargement of an empire. They 
were English yeomen and gentlemen, God-fearing, self-respect- 
ing, and desirous of providing the means of an education for 
their children. Some of them were scholars who had worn the 
cap and gown at old Cambridge or Oxford, and it was to be 
expected that among the first things attempted after their homes 
were established would be the inauguration of some system of 
education. 

In many respects they modeled their home life after the cus- 
toms prevailing in old England. Where they found that the old 
forms were unsuited to the new surroundings, they supplied the 
want by new modes better fitted to their primitive institutions. 

The first evidence of any organized attempt to supply the 
means of education in the new colony is found upon the records 
of the town of Boston. In 1635, when the new town was five 
years old, the following record appears : "Agreed upon that 
our Brother Philemon Pormort shall be entreated to become 
school-master for the teaching and nurturing children with us." 
In part pay for his services, thirty acres of land were voted to 
him. Soon after "a garden plot was voted to Mr. Danyell 
Maude, schoolmaster." 

No school system, however primitive, had at that time been 
established nor had any been attempted. How "Brother Por- 
mort" went about his labors, what branches he taught and how 
long his labors continued, we are not informed, but this simple 
record marks the first attempt to inaugurate a system of educa- 
tion in New England. In the same year was founded, through 
the efforts of Rev. John Cotton, the Boston Free Latin School. 

In the following year we find the first action of the General 
Court in the direction of education. The first volume of the 
Massachusetts Records contains this most important entry : "At 
a court holden September 8, 1636, and continued by adjourn- 
ment to the 28th of the 8th month, October, 1636, the Court 
agreed to give ^400 toward a school or college ; £200 to be paid 



next year and £200 when the work is finished, and the next Court 
to appoint where and what building." 

The next court ordered that the college should be established 
at Newtown and there, with most meagre and primitive equip- 
ment, was founded the young college which has since developed 
into Harvard University. 

Very soon we find the name of Newtown was changed to 
Cambridge, in memory of that older Cambridge, where so many 
of the colonists had pursued their studies and which they desired 
to reproduce as far as possible in their new home. Small as it 
may seem, the endowment voted by the Court for the infant 
college, — £400 — was indeed most liberal. It was equal to the 
entire tax of the colony for a year. 

An appropriation of a million dollars by the present General 
Court of Massachusetts would not represent a burden equal to 
the one which these people voluntarially placed on themselves 
by making provision for this fund. This liberal endowment was 
soon to be followed by a most generous private bequest. 

In 1637, the year of the establishment of the college at New- 
town, Rev. John Harvard joined the colony. He was a man of 
wealth and of culture, and at once became interested in the cause 
of education. What he might have accomplished in this direc- 
tion, had his life been spared, we can only conjecture. His 
labors were brought to an abrupt termination by his death in 
1638. His love for the new college is shown in the bequest by 
which he left to it, his entire library and one-half of his estate. 
President Quincy in his history of Harvard University thus 
speaks of this timely aid : "An instance of benevolence thus 
striking and timely was accepted by our fathers as an omen of 
Divine favor. With prayer and thanksgiving they immediately 
commenced the seminary and conferred upon it the name of 
Harvard." Harvard College was formally opened in 1638 and 
graduated its first class in 1642. The requirements for entrance 
in those early days w^ere such as might puzzle many who apply 
for admission to-day. In 1643 these requirements were given as 
follows : "When any scholar is able to understand Tully, or 
such like classical authors extempore, and make and speak true 
Latin in verse and prose — and decline perfectly the paradigms 
of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, let him then and not 
before be capable of admission into the college." 



With those old colonists religion and education went hand in 
hand. The clergy were, it is true, among the cliier promoters of 
learning and it has been charged that the Puritan ministers 
fostered the new college mainly as a means of perpetuating their 
own influence and that of their class. Said an old writer among 
the colonists : 

"After God had carried us safe to New England and we had 
builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, 
reared convenient places for God's worship and settled the civil 
government, one of the next things we longed for and looked 
after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; 
dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our 
present ministry shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking 
and consulting how to effect this great work it pleased God to 
stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a Godly gentleman and 
a lover of learning then living among us) to give the one-half 
of his estate (it being in all about £1,700) towards the erecting 
of a college, and all his library. After him another gave £300 ; 
others after them cast in more and the publique hand of the State 
added the rest." This paragraph has been made, in part, the 
basis of this charge, but a close examination into their acts shows 
that their efforts were earnestly directed towards finding means 
for the education of all classes. Naturally the colonists, having 
come to these shores on account of religious tyranny at home 
and having established themselves in the new world in order that 
they might have "freedom to worship God," desired that the 
religious teachers of the next generation should be educated 
men. They also desired, as their acts immediately following the 
founding of Harvard College show, that they were determined 
as soon as possible to extend the benefits of a practical educa- 
tion to all the youth of the colony. 

In 1642 an attempt was made to provide some general system 
of education which should be compulsory upon the colonists. 
The record of the Colonial Court, is, in part, as follows : "This 
Court taking into serious consideration the great neglect of many 
persons and masters in training up their children in learning, and 
labor, and other employments which may be profitable to the 
commonwealth, do hereby order and decree, that in every town, 
the chosen men appointed to manage the prudential affairs of 



the same, shall henceforth stand charged with the care of the 
redress of this evil ; * * * and for this end, they, 
or the greater number of them shall have power to take account 
from time to time, of all parents and masters, and of their chil- 
dren, especially of their ability to read and understand the prin- 
ciples of religion and the capital laws of this country and to 
impose fines upon such as shall fail to render such account to 
them when they shall be required; and they shall have power, 
with the consent of any court, or the magistrate, to put forth 
apprentices the children of such as they shall find not able and fit 
to employ and bring them up." 

The selectmen of every town were further required "to have 
a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see that none 
of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, 
as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their chil- 
dren and apprentices, so much learning as may enable them per- 
fectly to read the English tongue and (obtain) a knowledge of 
the capital laws ; upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect 
therein." 

It will be noticed that the act of 1642, while insisting that chil- 
dren, whether apprentices or at home, shall be to a certain extent 
educated, yet does not provide the means for that education and 
says nothing whatever about public schools. 

Seventeen years after the establishment of the Massachusetts 
colony the population had increased to nearly twenty thousand. 
They had in that time founded "fifty towns and villages, built 
thirty or forty churches and more ministers' houses, a castle, a 
college, prisons, forts, cartways and causeways many; had com- 
fortable houses, gardens and orchards, grounds fenced and corn- 
fields." In many of the towns schools had been provided in which 
boys were fitted for the new college at Cambridge. There was, 
however, no general system and the schools were supported for 
the most part by voluntary contributions. 

In 1647 was enacted the law which became the basis of the 
common school system of Massachusetts and which remained 
unchanged, except by an increase of penalty for its violation, for 
a period of one hundred and forty-two years. Moreover it con- 
tained the nucleus of the entire school system of Massachusetts 
as it exists to-day. 



8 

The following extract shows the general scope of the law, the 
system it inaugurated and the principles upon which that system 
rested. The original form of spelling is given only in the 
preamble. 

"It being one chief e project of y® ould deluder, Sathan, to 
keepe men from y® knowledge of y® Scriptures, as in form^ 
times by keeping y"^ in an unknown tongue, so in these latt"^ 
times by perswading from ye use of tongues y* so at least y^ true 
sence and meaning of y® originall might be clouded by false glo 
of saint seeming deceivers, y* learning may not be buried in y® 
grave of o^ fath^^ in y® church and commonwealth the Lord 
assisting o^ endeavors. 

"It is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof 
that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath 
increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then 
forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such chil- 
dren as shall resort to him, to write and read ; whose wages shall 
be paid, either by the parents or masters of such children, or by 
the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part 
of those who order the prudentials of the town shall appoint ; 
provided that those who send their children be not oppressed by 
paying much more than they can have them taught for in the 
adjoining towns. 

"And it is further ordered that when any town shall increase 
to the number of one hundred families or householders, they 
shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to 
instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the university ; 
and if any town neglect the performance above one year, then 
every such town shall pay five pounds per annum to the next 
such school, till they shall perform this order." 

It will be seen that this law was not in the interest of the select 
few, but that it provided a system of common schools for all and 
made that system compulsory. It will also be seen that in this 
law certain principles were for the first time boldly proclaimed 
and clearly enunciated, and they have 'been emphasized and reit- 
erated by frequent legislation in Massachusetts and in Maine 
until this day. The underlying principles of these earliest 
school laws recognized first that the safety and prosperitiy of 
the State require that the youth of the State should be educated. 



Second, That the parent is in the first instance responsible for 
the education of his children. 

Third, That the State has a right to enforce this responsibility 
upon the part of the parents. 

Fourth, That the State may, by legislative enactment, not only 
require the child to attend school, but may fix a standard of rank 
which shall determine the kind of education and the minimum 
amount. These principles were set forth in the law of 1642. 

The law of 1647 required all that was demanded in the pre- 
vious act and supplemented it by providing the means for the 
support of schools which should give the required instruction. 
Under this law towns in their corporate capacitiy were required 
to provide adequate opportunity for the education of all youth, 
which provision might be made by a tax upon the property of all 
the free-holders. The later law also made provision, at public 
expense, for secondary schools in which pupils could be fitted for 
college. Therefore the law of 1647 added these two principles 
to those already enunciated, viz : Fifth, A general tax may be 
ordered upon all property to provide such education as the State 
requires and no property holder can evade the tax on account 
of having no children to educate. 

Sixth, The State may provide for a higher education and may 
support schools at public expense for fitting pupils for the 
colleges. 

It should be noticed that the principle underlying these laws 
was not that the State should educate the child for the benefit of 
the child or its parents, but because the safety of the State 
demands that the child be educated. 

It should also be noted that attendance at the schools provided 
by the law was not made wholly compulsory, for the parent had 
a right to provide equivalent education in any way he might 
elect. The law was based on the principle that the child must be 
educated. If the parent does not provide the means then the 
child must attend the public schools. This fundamental idea is 
retained in the school laws of today. A careful reading of the 
law of 1647 shows that under this act towns were not obliged 
to lay a general tax for the support of common schools. The 
one thing about the law which was compulsory was that the 
towns must provide for the education of the children. The 



lO 



schools might be supported by voluntary contribution, by reason- 
able tuition or by general taxation "as the major part of those 
who order the prudentials of the town shall appoint." As a 
matter of fact there was at first no uniformity in the plans 
adopted to raise funds for the support of schools by the towns, 
but in the course of years it came to be seen that the most equit- 
able way was by the general tax which the law allowed but did 
not make compulsory. 

With the enactment of the law of 1647, the school system, 
though crude was, in a measure, complete and provision was 
made for elementary schools in which the rudiments of the 
English language were taught, the secondary classical schools, or 
grammer schools, as they were denominated in the act, in which 
pupils were fitted for college, and the college where those who 
wished might obtain a liberal education. 

In the Plymouth Colony, or the Old Colony, as it was called, 
where both population and wealth were less than in the younger 
settlement, there seems to have been no attempt to establish pub- 
lic schools during the first fifty years of its existence. 

Still, in the Old Colony education was by no means neglected, 
as the minister in most towns added to his pastoral duties the 
task of instructing the youth of his flock. In 1663, t^^ General 
Court of Plymouth Colony recommended "that some course may 
be taken that in every town there may be a schoolmaster set up to 
train up children to reading and writing." Very little attention, 
however, appears to have been paid to this recommendation. In 
1670, the profits from the Cape Cod fisheries were set apart for a 
free school and a little later a grammar school was established 
at Plymouth. In 1677, thirty years after the Massachusetts law 
was passed, the Plymouth General Court authorized towns of 
fifty families, which chose to have a grammar-school, to support 
it in part by a tax, and required towns of seventy families which 
had no grammar school to pay a stated sum to the nearest town 
having one. By the same law the profits of the fisheries were 
divided among the towns supporting such schools. Thus in the 
Old Colony the three-fold method of the support of schools was 
fixed by law ; fixed revenues, tuition fees and a town tax. 

In i6qt, came the new charter uniting the colonies of Massa- 
chusetts, Plymouth and Maine under one government and from 



1 1 



that time onward the educational history of these colonies became 
identical. Though the colonial school laws were re-enacted after 
the reorganization under the new charter, there seems to have 
been a laxity in their enforcement and a diminution of interest 
on the part of the masses of the people as the years went on. 
The penalty for neglect on the part of the towns to provide a 
schoolmaster was by the re-enactment raised to iio and, in 1701, 
the General Court declared that "the observance of the school 
law was shamefully neglected by divers towr^s, and the penalty 
thereof not required, tending greatly to the nourishment of ignor- 
ance and irreligion, whereof grievious complaint is made" and 
increased the penalty to £20. 

In not a few towns the law was evaded by appointing the min- 
ister to act as schoolmaster, and this custom became so general 
that it was enacted that no minister should be considered as a 
schoolmaster within the intent of the law, and all magistrates 
and all grand juries were enjoined to special vigilance in the 
execution of the law. As a result of this enactment frequent 
"presentments" of towns for non-compliance with the law are 
on record. It is worthy of note that some towns refused to sup- 
port grammar schools, electing to pay the fine regularly as a 
matter of economy. On this account the penalty was in 17 18 
raised to i6o for towns consisting of 300 families. The Indian 
Wars and other trials and hardships incident to their pioneer 
life rendered the towns poor and the school tax often became a 
burden. Early in the eighteenth century, the system of "moving 
schools" was adopted in many towns. Instead of having a 
number of schools in session in a town at the same time, a school 
would be held for a certain number of weeks in one portion of 
the town and then, under the same schoolmaster, move to another 
part and sometimes again to a third locality during the same 
year. In the sparsely settled towns it was often difficult to find 
men who were willing to teach these small "moving schools" for 
the wages the town could afford to pay, and special inducements 
were offered to such as would make teaching a profession. 
"Professed schoolmasters" were exempted from taxation, after- 
wards from militia duty and finally from watch duty. As a pro- 
tection against this exemption being claimed by unworthy per- 
sons, it was lequired that "persons who keep schools" must be of 



12 



sober and good conversation and must have the allowance and 
approbation of the selectmen and a penalty of forty shillings was 
imposed on all who should "keep school" without this approba- 
tion. The grammar master was required to be approved by the 
minister of the town in which he taught and of the two next 
adjacent towns, or two of them. In this law we see the first idea 
of compulsory examination and certification. Soon after this 
date we begin to read of the "school-dames" and find that in 
many of the towns "dame-schools" were instituted in which ele- 
mentary instruction was given the youngest children by women. 
Thus, in 1732, the town of Mendon voted to choose school-dames 
to teach school in the outskirts of the town. In 1764, Westford 
voted to hire a school-dame the following six months, to keep 
the school in six parts of the town. In this case we have an 
example of a dame-school on wheels. We read of one school- 
dame who took entire care of her own four little ones and taught 
a school of young children for twenty-two weeks in the warm 
season, for fourpence a week, eking out her wages by making 
shirts for eight pence each and breeches for a shilling and six 
pence a pair. 

Thus the cause of education struggled along until the dark 
cloud of the Revolution absorbed the entire attention of the 
colonies. That struggle having been successfully terminated, 
Massachusetts changed from a province to a commonwealth and 
in the new constitution the importance of education was duly set 
forth. "Wisdom and knowledge as well as virtue diffused gen- 
erally among the body of the people being necessary for the 
preservation of their rights and liberties ; and as these depend on 
spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the 
various parts of the country, and among the different orders of 
the people, it shall be the duty of Legislatures and magistrates, 
in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the inter- 
ests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them, 
especially the University of Cambridge, public schools and gram- 
mar schools in the towns." In 1788 a law was enacted providing 
that in the disposition of all townships of the public lands there- 
after, four lots of 320 acres each should be reserved for the fol- 
lowing purposes. The first lot was for "the first settled minis- 
ter" in the township and was known as the "minister lot." The 



13 

second was for the "use of the ministry" and was known as the 
"ministerial lot." The third was for the support of common 
schools in that township and became known as the "school lot," 
while the fourth was reserved "for the future disposition of the 
State," and was designated as the "State lot." 

In 1789 an elaborate school law was enacted which gathered 
and announced in the form of statute all the principles and ideas 
which an experience of a century and a half had demonstrated 
to be of value. 

In the new law, as in the old colonial laws, the requirements 
were graduated according to the population of the towns. In 
regard to the common English schools it was required that every 
town having fifty families must furnish annually six months 
schooling by a master ; this might be in one or more schools. 
A longer aggregate time was required of the larger towns. All 
towns of two hundred families must support a grammar school- 
master. 

Under the old law instruction was required only in reading 
and writing. The new law required reading, writing, the Eng- 
lish language, orthography, arithmetic and proper behavior. No 
youth could be sent to the grammar school unless he were already 
able to read. It was required that the "schoolmasters" should be 
graduates of §ome college or university, or they must produce 
a certificate of qualification from a learned minister of the town 
or neighborhood, and must produce a certificate of moral char- 
acter from a minister or from a selectman of their own town. 

The law of 1789 makes so important an advance in the history 
of our school system that we deem it advisible to give it entire. 

An Act to provide for the Instruction of Youth and for- the 
promotion of good education. 

WHEREAS, . The constitution of the Commonwealth hath 
declared it to be the duty of the General Court to provide for the 
education of youth ; and whereas, a general dissemination of 
knowledge and virtue is necessary to the prosperity of every 
State, and the very existence of a Commonwealth : 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of 
the same, that every town or district within this Commonwealth 
containing fifty families or householders, shall be provided with a 



14 

school-master or school-masters, of good morals, to teach chil- 
dren to read and write, and to instruct them in the English 
language, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and decent 
behavior, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to six 
months in each year. And every town or district containing one 
hundred families or householders, shall be provided with such 
school-master or school-masters for such term of time as shall 
be equivalent to six months in each year; and shall, in addition 
thereto, be provided with a school-master or school-masters, as 
above described, to instruct children in the English language, for 
such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months in each 
year. And every town or district containing two hundred 
families or householders, shall be provided with a grammar 
school-master of good morals, well instructed in the Latin, 
Greek and English languages ; and shall, in addition thereto, be 
provided with a school-master or school-masters, as above 
described, to instruct children in the English language, for such 
term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for each 
school in each year. 

And whereas by means of the dispersed condition of the inhab- 
itants of several towns and districts in this Commonwealth, the 
children and youth cannot be collected in any one place for their 
instruction, and it has hence become expedient that the towns 
and districts in the circumstances as aforesaid, should be divided 
into separate districts for the purpose aforesaid. 

Sect. 2. Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, 
That the several towns and districts in this Commonwealth, be 
and they are hereby authorized and empowered, in town meet- 
ings, to be called for that purpose, to determine and define the 
limits of the school districts within their towns and districts 
respectively. 

And to the end that grammar school-masters may not be pre- 
vented in their endeavours to discharge their trust in the most 
useful manner, 

Sect.' 3. Be it further enacted, That no youth shall be sent to 
such grammar schools unless they shall have in some other school 
or in some other way, learned to read the English language by 
spelling the same ; or the selectmen of the town where such 



15 

grammar school is, shall direct the grammar school-master to 
receive and instruct such youth. 

Sect. 4. Be it further enacted. That it shall be and it is hereby- 
made the duty of the President, Professors and Tutors, of the 
University at Cambridge, Preceptors and Teachers of Academies, 
and all other instructors of youth, to take diligent care, and to 
exert their best endeavours, to impress on the minds of children 
and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles 
of Piety, justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love of their 
country, humanity, and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry 
and frugality, chastity, moderation and temperance, and those 
other virtues which are the ornament of human society, and the 
basis upon which the Republican Constitution is structured. And 
it shall be the duty of such instructors, to endeavor to lead those 
under their care (as their ages and capacities will admit) into a 
particular understanding of the tendency of the beforementioned 
virtues, to preserve and perfect a Republican Constitution, and 
to secure the blessings of liberty, as well as to promote their 
future happiness ; and the tendency of the opposite vices to 
slavery and ruin. 

And to the end that improper persons may not be employed in 
the important offices before mentioned. 

Sect. 5. Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, 
That no person shall be employed as a School-Master as afore- 
said, unless he shall have received an education at some College 
or University, and, before entering on the said business shall 
produce satisfactory evidence thereof, or unless the person to be 
employed as aforesaid, shall produce a certificate from a learned 
minister, well skilled in the Greek and Latin languages, settled 
in the town or place where the school is proposed to be kept, or 
two other such ministers in the vicinity thereof, that they have 
reason to believe that he is well qualified to discharge the duties 
devolved upon such School-Master by this Act ; and in addition 
thereto, if for a grammar school, "that he is of competent skill in 
the Greek and Latin languag'es, for the said purpose." And the 
candidate of either of the descriptions aforesaid, shall moreover 
produce a certificate from a settled minister, of the town, dis- 
trict, parish or place, to which such candidate belongs, or from 
the selectmen of such town or district, or committee of such 



1 6 

parish or place, "That to the best of his or their knowledge he 
sustains a good moral character." Provided nevertheless, that 
this last certificate, respecting morals, shall not be deemed neces- 
sary, where the candidate for such school belongs to the place 
where the same is proposed to be constantly kept ; it shall be the 
duty, however, of such Selectmen or Committee who may be 
authorized to hire such School-Master, especially to attend to his 
morals, and no settled minister shall be deemed, held, or accepted 
to be a School-Master within the intent of this Act. 

Sect. 7. And it shall be the duty of the Minister or Ministers 
of the Gospel and the Selectmen (or such other persons as shall 
be especially chosen by each town or district for that purpose) of 
the several towns or districts, to use their influence and best 
endeavors that the youth of their respective towns and districts 
do regularly attend the schools appointed and supported as afore- 
said, for their instruction ; and once in every six months, at least, 
and as much oftener as they shall determine it necessary, to visit 
and inspect the several schools in their respective towns and dis- 
tricts, and shall inquire into the regulations and discipline 
thereof, and the proficiency of the scholars therein, giving reason- 
able notice of the time of their visitation. 

Sect. 8. Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all 
plantations which shall be taxed for the support of Government, 
and all parishes and precincts, are hereby authorized and 
empowered, at their annual meeting in March or April, to vote 
and raise such sums of money upon the polls and rateable estates 
of the respective inhabitants for the support and maintainance of 
a School-master to teach their children and youth to read, write 
and cypher, as they shall judge expedient, to be assessed by their 
Assessors in due proportion, and to be collected in like manner 
with the public taxes. 

And whereas, schools for the educaion of children in the most 
early stages of life, may be kept in towns, districts and planta- 
tions, which schools are not particularly described in this Act; 
and that the greatest attention may be given to the early^estab- 
lishing just principles in the tender minds of such children, and 
carefully instructing them in the first principles of reading. 

Sect. 9. Be it enacted, That no person shall be allowed to be 
master or mistress of such school, or to keep the same, unless he 



17 

or she shall obtain a certificate from the Selectmen of such town 
or district where the same may be kept, or the Committee 
appointed by such district, town or plantation to visit the schools, 
as well as from a learned minister settled therein, if such there be, 
that he or she is a person of sober life and conversation, and well 
qualified to keep such school. And it shall be the duty of such 
Master or Mistress, carefully to instruct the children attending 
his or her school, in reading and writing (if contracted for) and 
to instill into their minds a sense of piety and virtue, and to 
teach them decent behaviour. And if any person shall presume 
to keep such school, without a certificate as aforesaid, he or she 
shall forfeit and pay the sum of Twenty Shillings, one moiety 
thereof to the informer and to the use of the poor of the town, 
district or plantation where such school may be kept." 

Important as was the law of 1789, it still contained many 
radical defects. While the law required that certain things 
should be done, it neglected to provide means for doing them. 
It provided for the establishment of school districts, but gave 
the districts no powers. The law made schoolhouses a necessity, 
but neglected to mark out the way for their erection, except by 
voluntary contributions of citizens. As these defects were 
brought sharply to the notice of the people it was natural they 
should soon be remedied. In 1800, power was given the dis- 
tricts to tax the people within their limits and the money thus 
obtained was placed in the hands of officers regularly chosen, 
who had charge of its expenditure. The districts were author- 
ized to hold meetings, to choose a clerk, to decide upon a site for 
a schoolhouse and to raise money by taxation for buying land 
and for building and furnishing the house and for subsequent 
repairs. One thing only was still lacking to make the districts 
full municipal units and that was supplied by the law of 181 7, 
which made school districts corporations with power to hold 
property, enforce contracts, to sue and be sued, "so as to bring 
and maintain any action or any agreement made with any per- 
son or persons for the non-performance thereof, or for any dam- 
age done to their property ; and be liable to have any action 
brought and maintained against them for the non-performance 
of any contract made by them ; to have and to hold in fee simple, 
or otherwise, any estate, real or personal, which has been or may 
2 



i8 



be given by any person or persons, for the purpose of supporting 
a school or schools in said district, and to apply the same for the 
purposes aforesaid, and may prosecute and defend any suits 
relative to the same." 

By this act the school districts became full municipal corpora- 
tions and at the same time the ultimate subdivisions of American 
sovereign power. 

To this point had the evolution of our school system advanced 
when the separation 'was made from the mother State. 

On March 3, 1820, by act of Congress, Maine took her place 
as the twenty-third State in the American Union, with a popula- 
tion of 298,335, an increase of nearly 70,000 in the previous 
decade. At the time of its erection into a sovereign State, Maine 
contained 236 towns, included within nine counties. The new 
State preserved the district system inherited from Massachusetts 
with a few special exceptions, until it was repealed by the law 
of 1893. 

In 1822, the city of Portland, by special act of the Legislature, 
was given power to abolish its school districts and to give to its 
school committee the powers conferred by the old Massachusetts 
law upon district agents. Similar acts were passed in relation to 
Bath in 1828 and Bangor in 1832. At the first session of the 
Maine Legislature, which met on May 31, 1820, nonaction was 
taken in regard to schools. 

At the second session, which convened on the first Wednes- 
day of January, 1821, the first Maine school law was passed in 
the following language : 

WHEREAS, The Constitution of this State has declared that 
a general diffusion of the advantages of education is essential to 
the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, and has 
made it the duty of the legislature to require the several towns, 
to make suitable provision at their own expense, for the support 
and maintenance of public schools : 

Section i. Be it enacted by the House of Representatives in 
Legislature assembled, That every town and plantation shall 
annually raise and expend for the maintenance and support of 
schools therein, to be taught by schoolmasters, duly qualified, a 
sum of money including the income of any corporate school fund, 
not less than forty cents for each inhabitant, the number to be 



19 

computed according to the next preceding census of the states, 
by which the representation thereof has been apportioned ; Pro- 
vided that a part, not exceeding one-third of the money allotted 
to any district, may, if the district so determine, be applied to the 
support of a school taught by a mistress, or when the sum so 
allotted to a district in any year shall not exceed thirty-five dol- 
lars, the whole may be expended in the same manner. 

Sect. 2. Be it further enacted. That it shall be the duty of 
President, Professors, and Tutors in Colleges, and the pre- 
ceptors and teachers in Academies, and all other instructors of 
youth, to take diligent care and exert their best endeavours, to 
impress on the minds of children and youth, committed to their 
care and instruction the principles of piety and justice, and a 
sacked regard to truth, love to their countr\', humanity and a 
universal benevolence ; sobriety, industry and frugality ; chastity, 
moderation and temperance, and all other virtues which are the 
ornaments of human society ; and it shall be the duty of such 
instructors to endeavour to lead those under their care, (as their 
ages and capacities will admit), into a particular understanding 
of the tendency of the beforementioned virtues, to preserve and 
perfect a republican constitution, and secure the blessings of 
liberty, as well as to promote their future happiness, and the 
tendency of the opposite vices to slavery and ruin. 

Sect. 3. Be it further enacted, That there shall be chosen by 
ballot, at the annual meeting in each town and plantation, a 
superintending school committee, consisting of not less than 
three nor more than seven persons, whose duty it shall be to 
examine schoolmasters and schoolmistresses proposing to teach 
school therein. And it shall be the duty of such committee to visit 
and inspect the schools in their respective towns and plantations, 
and inquire into the discipline and regulations thereof, and the 
proficiency of the scholars therein, and use their influence and 
best endeavors that the youth in the several districts regularly 
attend the schools ; and the said committee shall have power to 
dismiss any schoolmaster or mistress who shall be found incapa- 
ble or unfit to teach any school, notwithstanding their having 
procured the requisite certificates, but the towns and plantations 
shall be bound to pay such instructors for the time they have been 
employed ; and the superintending committee shall have power to 



20 

direct what school-books shall be used in the respective schools ; 
and at the meeting for the choice of town officers, there shall be 
chosen an agent for each school district, whose duty it shall be 
to hire the school-masters or mistresses for their respective dis- 
tricts, and to provide the necessary utensils and fuel for the 
schools. If any parent, master or guardian shall, after notice 
given him by the master or mistress of any school, refuse or 
neglect to furnish their several scholars with suitable books, the 
selectmen of the town or the assessors of the plantation thereof, 
on being notified by such master or mistress, shall furnish the 
same at the expense of the town or plantation, which expense 
shall be added to the next town or plantation tax of such parent, 
master or guardian. 

Sect. 4. Be it further enacted, That no person shall be 
employed as a schoolmaster unless he be a citizen of the United 
States, and shall produce a certificate from the superintending 
school committee of the town or plantation where the school is 
to be kept, and also from some person of liberal education, liter- 
ary pursuits and good moral character, residing within the 
county, that he is well qualified to instruct youth in reading, 
in writing the English language grammatically, and in arithmetic 
and other branches of learning taught in the public schools ; and 
also a certificate from the selectmen of the town or assessors of 
the plantation where he belongs, that to the best of their knowl- 
edge he is a person of sober life and conversation and sustains a 
good moral character. And no person shall be employed as a 
schoolmistress unless she shall produce a certificate from the 
superintending school committee of the town or plantation where 
the school is to be kept, that she is suitably qualified to teach the 
English language grammatically, and the rudiments of arith- 
metic, and produce satisfactory evidence of her good moral 
character. 

Sect. 5. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of 
each town and plantation to assign to each school district, a pro- 
portion of the money raised in each year for the support of 
schools according to the number of children therein, between the 
ages of four and twenty-one years ; and the assessors of towns 
shall certify such assignment to the selectmen ; Provided, That 
whenever any town or plantation shall raise a sum of money 



21 



exceeding that required by this Act, such surplus may be dis- 
tributed among the several school districts in such manner as 
the town or plantation may determine. And if any town or 
plantation . shall fail to raise and expend annually for the sup- 
port of schools the amount of money required by this Act, they 
shall forfeit and pay a sum not less than twice nor more than 
four times the amount of such deficiency. And any person who 
shall teach any school required by this Act, without producing 
prior to his commencing the same, the certificates required by 
this Act shall forfeit and pay seventy-five cents for each day 
he shall so teach such school, and shall be barred from recovering 
from any town, plantation or person, any pay for teaching such 
school. 

Sect. 6. Be it further enacted. That all forfeitures for any 
breach of this Act, shall be recovered by indictment or infor- 
mation before any court of competent jurisdiction; and it shall 
be the duty of all Grand Jurors, to make due preparation thereof, 
in all cases that shall come to their knowledge, and such penalty 
when recovered, shall, in all instances be paid into the treasury 
of the town, or plantation, where the same was incurred, for 
the support of schools therein, in addition to the sum annually 
required to be raised by this Act, and the cost of prosecution 
into the county treasury. And if any town or plantation shall 
neglect for the space of one year, so to appropriate and expend 
any fine or penalty, they shall forfeit the same, to be recovered 
in an action of debt to the use of the person who may sue 
therefor. 

Sect. 7. Be it further enacted, That the several towns and 
plantations, be, and they are hereby authorized and empowered, 
to determine the number and define the limits of the school dis- 
tricts within the same ; and each and every school district in 
this State is hereby made a body corporate, with power to sue 
and be sued, and to take and hold any estate, real and personal, 
for the purpose of supporting a school or schools therein, and 
to apply the same agreeably to the provisions of this Act, inde- 
pendently of the money raised by the town for that purpose. 

Sect. 8. Be it further enacted. That the inhabitants of any 
school district, qualified to vote in town aflfairs, be, and they 
hereby are empowered, at any district meeting called in manner 



22 

hereinafter provided, to raise money for the purpose of erecting, 
repairing, purchasing, or removing a schoolhouse and of purchas- 
ing land on which the same may stand, and utensils therefor, and 
to determine where the said schoolhouse shall be erected or 
located in said district, and also to determine at what age the 
youth in said district may be admitted into a school kept by a 
master or mistress, and whether any scholars shall be admitted 
into such school from other school districts. 

Sect. 9. Be it further enacted, That for the purpose afore- 
said all lands, whether improved or unimproved, shall be taxed 
in the district in which they lie ; and the assessors of any town 
or plantation, shall assess in the same manner as town taxes are 
assessed on the polls and estates of the inhabitants composing 
any school district in their town or plantation and on lands 
lying within the same, belonging to persons not living therein, 
all monies voted to be raised by the inhabitants of such district 
for the purpose aforesaid within thirty days after the clerk of 
the district shall have certified to said assessors, the sum raised 
by said district, to be raised as aforesaid. And it shall be the 
duty of the said assessors to make a warrant in due form of 
law, directed to one of the assessors of the town or plantation, 
requiring and ^ipowering the said collector to levy and collect 
the tax so assessed and pay the same, within a time limited by 
said warrant, to the treasurer of the town or plantation, to whom 
a certificate of the assessment shall be made by the assessors ; 
and the money so collected and paid shall be at the disposal of 
the committee of the district, to be by them applied agreeably to 
a vote of their district aforesaid. And such collector in collect- 
ing such taxes shall have the same powers and be holden to pro- 
ceed in such manner as is by law provided in the collection of 
town taxes. 

Sect. 10. Be it further enacted, That the treasurer of any 
town or plantation, who shall receive a certificate of the assess- 
ment of a district tax, shall have the same authority to enforce 
the collection and payment thereof, as of town or plantation 
taxes. And the assessors of any town or plantation shall have 
the same power to abate such district tax, as they have to abate 
a town or plantation tax. And the assessors, collector and treas- 
urer shall be allowed by the school district the same compensation 



23 

for assessing, collecting and paying any district tax, as they are 
allowed by the town or plantation for similar services. 

Sect. II. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of 
the selectmen of any town and the assessors of any plantation, 
upon application made to them in writing by three or more free- 
holders residing in any school district in such town or plantation, 
to issue their warrant directed to one of the persons making such 
application, requiring him to warn the inhabitants of such dis- 
trict, qualified to vote in town affairs, to meet at such time and 
place in the same district as shall in the warrant be appointed. 
And the warning aforesaid shall be by notifying personally every 
person in the district qualified to vote in town affairs, or by leav- 
ing at his usual place of abode a notification in writing, express- 
ing therein the time, place and purpose of the meeting, seven 
days at least before the time appointed for holding the same ; 
Provided, That any town or plantation, at the request of such 
district, may at any legal meeting thereof, determine the man- 
ner in which '<otice of future meetings in such town or plantation 
may be given. And such inhabitants, so assembled, may choose 
a moderator, and also a clerk, who shall be sworn faithfully to 
discharge the duties of his office before a justice of the peace, or 
before the moderator, and it shall be the duty of such clerk to 
make a fair record of all votes passed at any meeting of the dis- 
trict, and to certify the same when required ; and may also choose 
a committee to superintend the laying out and expending the 
money raised by such district agreeably to their vote, for the 
purposes aforesaid, to examine and allow such accounts as they 
may think proper, and to draw orders on the town or plantation 
treasury for the amount of money raised. 

Sect. 12. Be it further enacted, That whenever at any legal 
meeting of a school district, called for the purpose of raising 
money for the erecting, repairing, purchasing or removing a 
schoolhouse, or for purchasing land on which the same may 
stand, or for procuring utensils therefor, a majority of the voters 
present are opposed to raising money for any such purpose, it 
shall be lawful for the selectmen of the town or the assessors of 
the plantation in which such district is situated, on application in 
writing of any five or more freeholders, inhabitants of such dis- 
trict, to insert in their warrant for calling the next town or plan- 



24 

tation meeting, an article requiring the opinion of the town or 
plantation, relative to such subject as proposed in the said district 
meeting; and if a majority of the voters present in such town or 
plantation meeting, shall think it necessary and expedient, they 
may grant a sufficient sum for the purposes aforesaid, to be 
assessed on the polls and estates in said district, to be collected 
and paid as in this Act provided. 

Sect. 13. Be it further enacted. That when the inhabitants 
of any school district cannot agree where to erect or locate a 
schoolhouse in their district, the selectmen of the town or assess- 
ors of the plantation to which such district belongs, upon appli- 
cation made to them in writing by the committee of the district, 
chosen to superintend the building or purchasing of such school- 
house, are hereby authorized and empowered to determine on the 
place where such schoolhouse shall be erected or located." 

A careful analysis of this law discloses the following provis- 
ions: I. It established a minimum amount of money which 
each town and plantation was required to raise and expend, annu- 
ally, for the support of schools. It will) be noticed that in Section 
I, it provides that the schools shall be "taught by schoolmasters 
duly qualified," while in Section 3 provision is made for exam- 
ining "schoolmasters and schoolmistresses proposing to teach 
school therein." 2. It establishes the plan of apportioning the 
money thus raised among the several school districts in the town. 
3. It provides for a closer organization of the school districts, 
reciting how they shall be formed, how the district agents shall 
be chosen ; defining the powers of the district in raising money, 
locating and erecting schoolhouses and assessing, collecting and 
expending money. 4. It provides for the election by the town 
of a superintending school committee, and defines their powers 
and duties. 5. It defines the qualifications of teachers and 
establishes the mode of determining those qualifications. 6. It 
enumerates the subjects to be taught in the common schools 
including morality, sobriety and industry, (Section 2) as well as 
the usual public school branches. (Section 4). 7. It estab- 
lishes penalties for non-compliance with its requirements and 
recites the manner of appeal from the decision of the school dis- 
tricts to the town by aggrieved parties. In 1822, an amendment 
was proposed, taking the power of choosing agents from the 



25 

town and giving it to the district. This met with opposition and 
a compromise amendment was passed makiner it optional with 
the towns to allow the districts to choose their agents. 

As time progressed defects in the law became apparent, and 
these the friends of education sought to remedy by suitable legis- 
lation. Several amendments were enacted by the Legislature 
of 1825. The original law ot 1821 provided that each town 
should choose a superintending school committee; it neglected, 
however, to append any penalty for non-compliance. The com- 
mittee were required by the first law to visit the schools but 
nothing was said as to how often or at what periods, neither were 
the committee given any authority over unruly scholars. The 
amendatory act of 1825 fixed a penalty of from $30 to $200 upon 
any town neglecting to cnoose a school committee and gave the 
committee power to exclude unruly and disobedient pupils. It 
provided that the district agent should inform the committee of 
the date of opening and closing of the school and that the com- 
mittee should visit each school at least twice during its session, 
once within three weeks after its commencement and again within 
two weeks of its close. The act of 1821 provided for an annual 
enumeration of the persons between four and twenty-one in the 
district as the basis for the division of the school fund, but did 
not specify any date for such enumeration. The law of 1825 
named the first day of May as that date. It also allowed ten per 
cent, of the school fund to be expended for fuel and necessary 
repairs upon schoolhouses. 

The original statute provided that any district receiving less 
than $35 as its portion of the school fund for the year, might 
expend the entire sum in a school taught by a mistress ; but if 
more than that amount were received, at least two-thirds of it 
should be expended in a school taught by a master. The act of 
1825 left it in the discretion of the district and the committee 
to decide how much of the school fund should be expended for 
each class of schools. 

Experience proved that some basis must be fixed on which 
to apportion to the several towns any school funds that might be 
■distributed by the State. The original law made no provision 
for any returns of school statistics to be made bv the towns. 
The law of 1825 made it the duty o^ the selectmen of the several 



26 



towns to make returns, once in three years to the Secretary of 
State, on blanks furnished by him, giving the number of dis- 
tricts in town ; the number of scholars in each ; the number 
usually attending school; the length of the schools and the 
amount of money expended for their support. The provision 
was only partially complied with and the returns lacked accuracy 
and hence were of little value. No apportionment of school 
money on returns from the towns was made until 1833. 

The Legislature of 1827 made further enactments in regard 
to education. Provision was made for forming districts out of 
portions of two or more towns and for the apportionment of 
school money to persons living upon islands, or in remote por- 
tions of towns outside of district limits, said money to be 
expended under the direction of the superintending school 
committee. Districts were authorized to instruct their agents 
as to the time when the schools should commence. The act 
of 1827 also contained the first hint of anything like a graded 
system of schools. It provided that where, in any district, a 
school was taught a portion of the year by a master and the 
remaining portion by a mistress, the district, by a committee 
appointed by the citizens, or by the school committee of the town, 
should the districts so choose, might determine what class of 
scholars should be admitted to each school. 

The Legislature of 1828 enacted a law directing the Land 
Agent to set apart twenty townships of the public lands to be sold 
and the proceeds to be deposited in the State treasury, to form 
a permanent State school fund, the interest to be distributed 
annually among the several towns and plantations in the State 
according to the number of scholars therein. The same law pro- 
vides that a certain portion ("the excess over and above what the 
State may then owe"), o^ all moneys received from Massachu- 
setts on account of claims against the United States for services 
in the war of 181 2, should also be set apart for the support of 
schools. These two items form what is officially known as the 
State permanent School Fund, the interest upon which at six per 
cent, is annually distributed among the towns and plantations for 
the support of common schools. For the year 1900 this interest 
amounts to $26,565.47. The Legislature of 1828 also passed a 
law that one thousand acres should be set apart in all townships 



thereafter sold or surveyed instead of the four lots of 320 acres 
provided for by the old Massachusetts law of 1788. In 1830 
an act was passed specifying the manner of calling school district 
meetings. By an act passed in 1831 it was provided that the 
"Act of Separation" between Massachusetts and Maine should 
be so far modified or annulled that the Legislature of Maine 
should have the power to direct that the income of any lands 
reserved for the benefit of the ministry should be applied to the 
support of "primary schools" provided the consent of Massachu- 
setts should be obtained. 

That consent having been obtained the following law was 
enacted by the Legislature of 1832. 

CHAPTER 39 PUBLIC LAWS OF 1832. 

An Act appropriating the income of certain Ministerial 
Funds to the support of Schools. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives in Legislature assembled. That the Trustees of any 
Ministerial Fund incorporated by the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts, in any town within this State, be and they are hereby 
authorized, with the consent of the town for whose benefit such 
fund was established, to surrender and transfer said fund to the 
Selectmen, Town Clerk and Treasurer of such town ; and said 
town officers shall be and they are hereby made, ex officio, the 
Trustees of the fund aforesaid; and, after such transfer, the 
animal income of said fund shall be applied to the support of 
primary schools in^such town. 

Sect. 2. Be 'it further enacted. That the income of any fund, 
which has arisen or which may arise, from the proceeds of the 
sales of lands reserved for the use of the ministry, or of the first 
settled minister, in any town in this State, and which fund, or 
the land from which it may arise has not become vested in some 
particular parish within such town, or in some individual, is 
hcrebv directed and required to be annually applied to the sup- 
port of primary schools in such town. 

Sect. 3. Be it further enacted, That the income of the funds 
aforesaid shall be expended for the benefit of schools in the 
same mat!ner that other money raised for the support of schools, 
in the several towns in this State, is by law required to be 
expended. 



28 



But this act shall not be construed to exempt any town from 
raising, for the use of the schools, the same sum of money, 
beyond the income of the fund aforesaid, that it is now by law 
required to raise for that purpose. 

Sect. 4. Be it further enacted, Ihat all Acts, and parts of 
Acts, inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, he and the 
same are hereby repealed. 

(Approved by the Governor March 9, 1832). 

At the same session the law was passed allowing the town of 
Bangor to abolish its school districts and also giving that town 
authority to pay its school committee such sum for their services 
as might be deemed proper. No legal provision had before 
been made for the payment of school committees and this act 
applied to Bangor alone. This act also gave Bangor the right 
"to determine the age at which scholars may be admitted into 
the several schools in said town, and of transferring the scholars 
from school to school."' Plere.at this early date we find the 
germ of our present law for the conveyance of scholars. 

The Legislature of 1833 passed an act additional to an act to 
provide for the Education of Youth. This act provides "That 
all sums which may hereafter be received by the State for the 
tax on the several banks, excepting the sum of one thousand 
dollars appropriated for the benefit of the Parsonsfield Semin- 
ary, shall be and the same hereby are appropriated to the support 
of primary schools."' Section 2, provided that school agents 
should be sworn and that they should in the month of Decem- 
ber in each year return to the selectmen a certified list of the 
number of scholars between four and twenty-one. 

Section 3, required the selectmen to make the return called for 
in the act of 1825 to the Secretary of State "in the month of 
January annually" instead of once in three years as the original 
act prescribed. 

Section 4, required the Secretary of State to notify the State 
Treasurer of the number of scholars "in the several towns, plan- 
tations and city aforesaid from which returns were seasonably 
made.'" Section 5, required the State Treasurer to apportion 
the bank tax among the several towns, etc.. according to the 
number of scholars and to send the amoimt to the several town 
treasurers on or after the fifteenth day of February in each year. 
Section 6, required the selectmen to apportion the amount 



29 

received among the several school districts according to the 
number of scholars in each. Section 7, provided that the towns 
should not be relieved by this distribution from raising the 40 
cents per capita required by the former law. 

In 1834 was passed "An Act to provide for the Instruction 
of Youth," Chapter 129, Public Laws of 1834. In this act all 
the school laws, previously enacted were collected in one statute, 
a few minor changes were made and all acts inconsistent there- 
with were repealed. In this act the superintending school com- 
mittee of each town were to consist of not less than three nor 
more than five, instead of seven as in the former law. The com- 
mittee were required to be sworn and to make a written report 
of the condition of the schools, to be read at the annual town 
meeting. Destricts were allowed to vote to receive scholars 
from other towns and other districts into their schools. The 
act also allowed all towns in the State, if they should so vote at 
any legal meeting called for that purpose, to adopt the school 
organization allowed by former laws to Portland, Bath and 
Bangor. 

[n March, 1835, the third .section of the act of February 23, 
1828, which provided that certain moneys received from Massa- 
chusetts on claims against the United States for services in "the 
late war" should be set apart for a school fund, was repealed. 

An act approved February 13, jS^.y, repealed certain sections 
of the general act of 1834 and provided "That it shall be the 
duty of the Selectmen of Towns and the overseers of Planta- 
tions, respectively, to make out a statement, annually, of the 
number of scholars in each of their districts, between the ages of 
four and twenty-one years, as the same existed on the first day 
of May preceding ; the number of school districts within their 
respective towns or plantations ; the number of scholars who 
usually attend school in each ; the amount of money raised and 
expended for the support of schools ; designating what part is 
raised by taxes and what part from funds, and how such funds 
have accrued ; and the time the school has been kept in each, 
desigiiating how much by a schoolmistress ; and to certify upon 
oath in said statement, that the same is true and correct accord- 
ing to their best knowledge and belief; and to transmit the said 
statement to the office of the Secretary of State, on or before 
the twentieth day of January in each year." This law also pro- 



30 

yided that the distribution of the bank tax should be predicated 
upon the statements made in these returns : also that the Secre- 
tary of State should furnish proper blanks for making the 
required returns. On March 20, 1838, a resolve was passed m 
the following words : 

"Resolved, That the Secretary of State be required to make an 
abstract in tabular form, by counties, of the returns of Common 
Schools made by the several towns, cities and plantations for 
the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, together 
with a statement of the population of ^each town, city and plan- 
tation according to the census taken in that year, and such com- 
parisons of the returns of schools and of population and such 
deductions therefrom as may be usefully and conveniently made, 
and a statement of the amount paid, or to be paid, to each town, 
city and plantation out of the Bank Tax or School Fund for the 
same year." 

''Resolved, That the Secretary of State be authorized to cause 
ten thousand copies of the abstract and statements aforesaid to 
be printed and distributed for the information of the people, 
reserving five hundred copies thereof to be laid before the next 
Legislature for the use of the members." 

Abstracts, as contemplated by this resolve, were made each 
year until 1842, but the tables proved to be so faulty and unre- 
liable that the resolve of 1S38 was repealed in January, 1842, and 
the publication of the abstracts discontinued, 

On March 16, i8zj.o, an act was approved providing for a fine 
of not more than twenty nor less than two dollars for disturb- 
ing schools. Offences under this act were to be prosecuted by 
presentment of the Grand Jury or by complaint before a Justice 
of the Peace. 

(Occasionally during these early years we find resolves giving 
persons residing at a distance from schools a certain sum in full 
of their share of the school fand when they shall make it appear 
that they have expended a like amount in the education of their 
children. 

In 1840, a resolve was passed directing the vState Treasurer 
to include in his apportionment of the School Fund all returns 
of scholars received up to February twenty-second and to 
assume as the basis of apportionment for such towns as had not 
made a return at that time the number of scholars given by the 



31 

last census. In 1841, the time for making- the returns was 
extended to the twelfth of March. A resolve approved March 
20, 1841, directed the State Treasurer to pay to the County- 
Treasurers the amount of school money due "unincorporated 
and unorganized plantations in their respective Counties," the 
same to be paid by the County Treasurers to the treasurers or 
agents of the several plantations. 

Chapter \y of the Revised vStatutes of 1841 collects in one act 
the entire school legislation of the State, in this revision certain 
changes were made. The superintending school committee were 
required to make their return of school statistics to the select- 
men fourteea days prior to the annual town meeting. For the 
first time a general provision was made for pajing the com- 
mittees for services rendered, the pay being fixed at "not more 
than one dollar per day for their services, unless otherwise 
ordered by the town.'' A slight change was made in the 
required qualifications of teachers, "writing" being added as one 
of the requirements of schoolmistresses. 

In his inaugural address, January J5, 1841, Governor Kent 
says : "We are justly proud of our system of common schools 
and New England can point to no higher evidence of the v;is- 
dom, patriotism and foresight of tlie fathers of our land. The 
principle of universal education, upon which the system is 
based, lies at the very foundation of our republican institutions. 

* * * * Tq ^id jj-^ |-|^g great work of renovation, we need 
a higher standard of qualifications for teachers, institutions par- 
ticularly adapted to instruct and prepare them for the great 
work before them, schoolhouses of better and more suitable con- 
struction, and a more general interest on the part of the people 
in the researches and suggestions of those who have investigated 
the whole subject with patience, ability and minuteness, a dis- 
semination of the able treatises which have been published and 
a determination to adopt and carry out in practice judicious 
reforms and unquestionable improvements. In aid of their 
views, I would suggest the expediency of authorizing school 
districts to raise money for the purchase of district libraries, of 
standard works, under the direction of a committee or otherwise. 

•K * * * * J ^ff^ not prepared to recommend at this 
time, the establishment of a Board of Education, but I have no 
doubt that the employment of one or more intelligent, active, 



32 

judicious commissioners, whose duty it shall be to devote their 
time and talents to this subject, visit different parts of the State 
and disseminate information, awaken attention and interest 
among- the citizens and carry into practical operation well estab- 
lished improvements, and gather and arrange statistics, would 
be highly advantageous to the cause of popular education, and 
amply repay, in substantial benefits, the cost of the experiment. 
* * * "■ I cannot but regard the course adopted in most of 
our compact and populous towns and villages, by which the 
public and common schools are made of secondary importance 
by the preeminence given to private instruction, as injurious to the 
cause of general education, and as fostering a spirit which leads 
to invidious distinctions in society and serves to degrade the 
public seminaries, in many minds, to a point little short of 
absolute contempt." 

In 1842 a law was passed prescribing the duties of school 
officers in districts composed of parts of two or more towns. 
This act also provided for the grading of schools in districts 
having a sufficient number of scholars to require two or more 
schools to be in operation at the same time. 

In the session of 1843, the committee on education, through 
its chairman, reported a bill to provide for a Board of School 
Commissioners, to consist of one from each of the thirteen coun- 
ties in the State, to be appointed by the Governor and Council. 
This bill was thoroughly discussed in the House and the argu- 
ments for and against were fully brought out. The bill passed 
the House by a small majority, but was, without debate, indefi- 
nitely postponed by the Senate. The discussion was, however, 
of great importance in awakening public interest in the improve- 
ment of the common schools. 

The Legislature of 1844 enacted four laws in relation to 
public schools. The first, approved February 29, provided 
that plantations organized for election purposes only, should 
be empowered to establish schools and should receive a 
share of the apportionment of the State school fund, accord- 
ing to the number of persons of school age living therein. 
The law recited at length the manner of organization, of 
census enumeration, and prescribed the powers and duties of 
the school officers. The act of March 6 gave to districts '"'where 
more than one school is necessary to accommodate the scholars 



33 

in said district," power to build ''such a number of scboolhouses 
as the wants of said district may require." The third act 
approved March 19, authorized school districts to expend not to 
exceed five per cent, of their school money in any one year for 
the purchase "of district libraries. The fourth act, approved 
March 21, provided that when any district declined to raise 
money for any purpose which the town considered necessary, 
the town might require the district to raise the sum needed and 
the selectmen were required to appoint, in writing, three suit- 
able inhabitants of said district, to be a committee to superin- 
tend the expenditure of the money, etc., etc. 

In 1845, the committee on education again reported a bill pro- 
viding for a Board of School Commissioners, to be appointed 
by the Governor and Council and to consist of not less than three 
nor more than live persons. After full and free discussion in 
both branches of the Legislature, the bill failed of a passage. 

In January, 1846, a convention of teachers and of those inter- 
ested in education was held in Augusta. A committee consist- 
ing of Amos Brown, Phillip Eastman, A. S. Packard and 
Samuel P. Benson, was appointed by this convention, with 
instructions to consider carefu.llv "the defects in our educational 
system and to suggest measures for their removal." This com- 
mittee was instructed also to prepare a memorial upon the sub- 
ject and submit it to the Legislature at its next session. Tn their 
memorial the committee emphasized the following as the princi- 
pal evils then existing in the common school system of Maine • 
I. "The multiplying of school districts." 2. "The prevalent 
inefficiency of school committees." 3. "The want of suitable 
qualifications in teachers." 4. "The want of proper classifica- 
tion in schools, arising from multiplicity of school books and 
want of system in the course of study." The committee strongly 
recommended the establishment of a State Board of Education. 
This memorial was presented to the Legislature and was by 
them referred to the committee on Education who reported the 
following bill, which was enacted by the Legislature and was 
approved by the Governor, July 27, 1846: 

An Act to establish a Board of Education. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
Legislature assembled : 

3 



34 

Section i. A Board of Education is hereby established in 
this State, to consist of one member from each county who shall 
be elected in the manner hereinafter provided. 

Sect. 2. The superintending school committees of the several 
towns, and the clerks of the several plantations in' each county 
are hereby required to assemble, annually, at the times and 
places hereinafter designated, and when so assembled in each 
county, to choose, by the majority of those present, one person, a 
resident of the county, who shall be the member of the Board of 
Education for such county, and shall hold his office until a suc- 
cessor is duly chosen and qualified. The county meetings 
aforesaid shall be organized by the choice of a chairman and 
clerk, who shall severally certify the election of the member 
chosen and transmit one copy of such certificate to the Secretary 
of State, and one copy to the person chosen. 

Sect. 3. A quorum of each county meeting shall consist of 
one or more members of the superintending school committee 
from a majority of the towns in each county, but if any town or 
city shall have a superintending school committee consisting of 
more than five members, such committee shall appoint delegates 
from their own number, not exceeding five, which delegates 
shall exercise the duties and powers herein provided. 

Sect, 4. The county meetings aforesaid shall be held at the 
shire towns in each county, and at Wiscasset in the county of 
Lincoln, at the times following: 

York, third Tuesday of September. 

Cumberland, Friday next after the third Tuesday of Sep- 
tember. 

Oxford, fourth Tuesday of September. 

Franklin, first Tuesday of October. 

Somerset, Friday next after the first Tuesday of October, 

Piscataquis, second Tuesday in October, 

Penobscot, Friday next after the second Tuesday in October, 

Aroostook, third Tuesday in October, 

Washington, Friday next after the third Tuesday in October. 

Hancock, fourth Tuesday in October. 

Waldo, first Tuesday in November. 

Lincoln, Friday next after third Tuesday in November, 

Kennebec, second Tuesdav in November, 



35 

And each meeting shall be held at eleven o'clock on the days 
aforesaid. 

Sect. 5. The members of the Board of Education thus chosen 
shall hold their first meeting on the first Wednesday of May in 
each year at Augusta, and may meet thereafter, at such times 
and places as they shall by vote determine. They shall appoint 
a chairman and clerk from their own number. Five members 
shall be a quorum for the transaction of business. In case of 
any vacancy in the Board, or if in any county an election shall 
not have been effected at the county meeting herein provided, 
the members of the Board actually elected and in office, may fill 
such vacancy and supply such failure for any county where the 
same may occur. 

Sect. 6. The Board of Education first chosen, shall meet for 
organization, and for choice of the Secretary hereinafter pro- 
vided, on the third Wednesday of December next, at Augusta, 
and shall hold their offices until the first Wednesday of May, 
eighteen hundred and forty-eight, and the term of each new 
Board of Education thereafter shall commence on the first Wed- 
nesday of May, annually. 

Sect. 7. The Board of Education shall, at their first meeting 
in each year, elect by ballot, one person, who shall be styled the 
Secretary of the Board of Education, and shall hold his office 
for one year, and until another shall be chosen. But the Secre- 
tary first elected, shall hold his office, until the first Wednesday 
of May, eighteen hundred and forty-eight. Tn case of a vacancy 
in the office of Secretary, it shall be the duty of the Board, as 
soon as may be, after the occurence of such vacancy, to elect 
another for the remainder of the year. 

Sect. 8. The members of the Board, and the Secretary, shall 
severally be sworn to the faithful performance of their respective 
duties, before any magistrate authorized to qualify civil officers. 
Sect. 9. It shall be the duty of the Board of Education, and 
especially of the Secretary, to devote themselves assiduously to 
examine the practical operation of those parts of the constitution 
and laws of the State, which provide for public education, and 
the diffusion of knowledge among the people. In pursuance 
of this object, the Secretary shall attend the county meetings 
herein provided for the election of members of the Board, and 
communicate with the superintending school committees there 



36 

assembled, and with teachers and the friends of pubhc instruc- 
tion genera]l_v. And the Board of Education, directly, or 
through the agency of the Secretary, are authorized and 
required to collect and disseminate information in regard to 
the location and construction of schoolhouses ; on the arrange- 
ment of school districts and the use of the best school appar- 
atus; to consult with superintending school committees and 
school agents on the best and cheapest method of introducing 
uniform school books, and on the practicability and expediency 
of establishing school district libraries ; to inquire and report 
on the advantages of normal schools, or schools for the edu- 
cation of teachers ; to consider the best methods of aiding and 
promoting education in the new settlements of the State ; to 
devise improvements in teaching the branches of instruction 
now pursued in the common schools, and for the introduction 
of such other branches of useful knowledge as may be practi- 
cable, and generally to consult with school committees, school 
agents, and other authorities and inhabitants of the State, for 
the purpose of ascertaining, recommending and promoting all 
such improvements in the common school system as may be 
consistent with the constitution and laws of the State, and the 
welfare of its inhabitants. And it shall be the duty of the Board 
in the month of April, annually, to prepare a report of their 
doings, and the results of their investigations during the pre- 
ceding year, which shall be presented to the Governor, and by 
him laid before the Legislature. 

Sect. lO. The Secretary of State is hereby authorized, under 
the direction of the Governor and Council, to furnish such blank 
forms for returns respecting schools as the Board of Education 
may recommend ; and all such returns may be addressed to the 
Secretary of State. 

Sect. II. The members of the Board of Education shall each 
receive for their travel from their several places of residence to 
the place of their several meetings, ten cents per mile, and one 
dollar for each day's attendance at any meeting, but not exceed- 
ing in the aggregate thirty days in each year. 

Sect. 12. The Secretary of the Board of Education shall 
receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars, payable in 
quarterly payments, which shall be in full for all services and 
expenses of said office. 



37 

Sect. 13. The Board of Education, at such times as they may 
appoint, sliall make up their pay roll for travel and attendance, 
which, when examined and allowed by the Governor and 
Council, shall be paid to them, out of any money in the treasury 
not otherwise appropriated. 

Sect. 14. For the purpose of providing- for the organization 
of the first Board of Education, the Governor, with the advice 
of his Council, is hereby authorized to appoint, before the first 
day of August next, a provisional School Agent for the State, 
M'hose duty it shall be to communicate with the superintending 
school committees of the several towns respecting the duties 
required by this act, to make such arrangements as may be nec- 
essary for the ■ first county meetings herein provided, and to 
obtain, from the returns now in the office of the Secretary of 
State, and from other sources, such information respecting 
the actual condition of common schools within this State, as may 
be usefully laid before the county meetings, and the Board of 
Education, at their first organization, to enable them to enter 
without delay, upon the discharge of their duties. The duties 
of such Agent shall continue until the Board of Education is 
organized ; and he shall receive therefor such compensation as 
shall be allowed by the Governor and Council, not exceeding 
two hundred and fifty dollars. 

The law provided that the Board should consist of one mem- 
ber from each county, to be elected by the school committees of 
the several towns and the clerks of the several plantations. 
The following persons were elected members of this Board, viz : 
Stephen Emery, Horace Piper, Philip Eastman, Benjamin Ran- 
dall, A. F. Drink water, Aaron Hayden, R. H. Vose, Samuel 
Taylor, Ebenezer Knowlton, David Worcester, Oliver L. Cur- 
rier, Samuel Adams, and William I. Savage. This committee 
chose as its first Secretary of the Board Mr. William G. Crosby 
of Belfast. The first session commenced December 16 and 
closed December 21, 1846. The second session began on the 
5th of May, 1847. I'h^ Secretary presented his report, which 
was afterwards submitted to the Legislature. The report gives 
the first reliable statistics concerning the common schools of 
Maine. By this report the average wages of female teachers 
was $1.52 per week and of male teachers $16.71 per month, 
exclusive of board. The average length of schools for the year 



was 21 weeks, i day. The number of persons between 4 and 21 
years was 201,992: whole number in winter schools, 94,217; in 
summer schools, 96,127. Thus it will be seen that less than fifty 
per cent, of persons of legal school age were enrolled in public 
schools. 

An act approved August 10, 1864, provided that moneys aris- 
ing from the sale of timber on the reserved lots in unincorpor- 
ated townships should constitute funds for school purposes, the 
income only to be expended. The funds were to be invested by 
the County Commissioners of the several counties. If there 
were no inhabitants in a township from which timber was sold, 
the interest should be added annuallly to the principal. If the 
township had inhabitants and if they became organized into a 
plantation, then the interest should be paid yearly to the planta- 
tion clerk, to be applied to the support of schools. 

Aug. 2, 1847, an act was approved providing for the better 
education of youth in cotton and woolen mills. Children 
employed between the ages of twelve and fifteen years were 
required to attend school three months in each year, and chil- 
dren under twelve )^ears, four months ; a certificate to that efifect 
to be deposited with the clerk or agent of the mills. A penalty 
of fifty dollars for each offense was provided, and superintend- 
ing school committees were required to inquire into violations 
of the law and report to the County Attorneys. 

In June, 1847, a l^w was passed providing for the establishment 
of county teachers' institutes. To defray the expense of these 
institutes the sum of twenty-six hundred dollars was to be set 
apart annually from the income of the permanent school fund 
and a maximum of two hundred dollars was appropriated from 
this sum for the expenses of each covmty institute. 

One institute was held in each county, thirteen in all, during 
the latter part of the year 1847. Sixteen hundred and eighty- 
six teachers attended the sessions and great good resulted to 
the teaching force of the State. 

An act approved July 31, 1847, made several amendments 
to the laws in relation to schools. Additional duties were 
imposed upon superintending school committees and they were 
denied pay until they had furnished evidence to the selectmen 
that they had made the required returns to the Secretary of 



39 

State. Districts were authorized to unite and appropriate a 
certain portion of their school funds for a graded school. 
Districts were also authorized to determine what proportion 
of their school money should be applied for the support of 
schools taught by schoolmistresses. In case school agents 
failed to take the census of scholars, it was made the duty of 
the assessors to make the enumeration and return. The clause 
requiring teachers to be citizens of the United States was 
repealed. The time of making school returns to the Secretary of 
State was changed from January 20, to April i, and towns neg- 
lecting to make returns forfeited their share of the State School 
Fund. Additional penalties were provided for disturbing 
schools and destroying school property. School districts were 
allowed to purchase "apparatus" as well as libraries, and teachers 
were required to keep registers and were denied pay until the 
register, properly filled out, was deposited with the school com- 
mittee. 

An act approved June 27, 1848, made some amendments to 
the law establishing a Board of Edvication. By this act it was 
prescribed that the annual meeting of the superintending school 
committees should be held at such time and place in each 
county as the member of the Board for the county should 
appoint ; he to give thirty days' notice to the committees of the 
several towns in his county. In case of a vacancy on the Board 
from any county, the Secretary of the Board should call the meet- 
ing of the committees. The annual report of the Board should 
be made in the month of May, instead of April as required by 
the original act. Chapter 44 of the laws of 1848 directed the 
State Treasurer to discontinue the apportionment and distribu- 
tion of the annual school funds to unincorporated or unorgan- 
ized places. 

Chapter 48, of the laws of 1848 required that school agents, 
whether elected by towns or school districts, should be sworn 
either by the district clerk, the town clerk or by some justice 
of the peace. Chapter 54, same year, provides that when a 
majority of the selectmen of any town shall reside in one school 
district in which it becomes necessary to locate a schoolhouse, 
or shall not be able to agree, the superintending school committee 
shall locate the house. 



4" 

Chapter 124 of the laws of 1849 directed that an amount 
equal to six per cent, of the permanent school fund shall be 
annually appropriated for the support of primary schools. The 
Treasurer of State shall annually in the month of May distribute 
the fund in the same manner as required in case of the bank 
tax. This act shall not relieve towns from raising the required 
forty cents per capita. 

Chapter 129, 1849, authorized the Land Agent to dispose of 
any timber lands apportioned for the benefit of common schools 
without regard to the law requiring that no more than three 
townships should be sold in any one year. 

Chapter 137, 1849, authorized school districts to elect tax 
collectors. 

Chapter 143, 1849, amended the act establishing teachers' 
institutes by directing that the expense of their maintenance 
should be paid from "any rnoney not otherwise appropriated" 
instead of "from the income of the permanent school fund" as 
provided in the original act. 

Chapter 193 of the Public Laws of 1850 entitled : "An Act 
to provide for the education of youth," approved August 27, 
1850, is a complete codification in twelve Articles of the school 
laws of the State. 

Article i. Containing sixteen sections, relates to "the gen- 
eral duties of towns." In section eight of this Article it is pro- 
vided that the number of superintending school committee in 
each town shall be limited to three, one of whom shall be chosen 
each year, the term of office to be three years. Section 9 provides 
that any town containing two thousand inhabitants or more, 
may, instead of a committee, choose a supervisor of schools. It 
required that the supervisor be a resident of the town and a 
"competent individual." 

Section 11 allowed towns to choose annually a committee of 
not less than three and were authorized to "invest such com- 
mittee with the rights, powers and obligations pertaining to 
school agents as well as to a superintending school committee." 
Section 14, 15 and 16 authorized towns to make "all needful 
provisions and arrangements concerning habitual truants." 

Article II containing twenty-one sections, treats "of the powers 
and obligations of school districts." Article III. with nineteen 



41 

sections, treats "of the assessment and collection of money 
raised or borrowed by school districts." No change of import- 
ance is made in these two articles. Article IV, consisting of 
five sections, treats "of school districts formed from two or more 
towns." This article provides for the formation of school dis- 
tricts from two or more towns, prescribes the manner of organ- 
ization, how money shall be apportioned, location of school- 
houses decided and schools superintended. Article V, contain- 
ing three sections, the first two being subdivided into nine para- 
graphs each, treats "of the powers and duties of superintending 
school committees." Section one enumerates the duties of the 
committee as, ist to fill any vacancies occurring on the board 
until the next annual meeting ; 2nd and 3d, to examine teachers ; 
4th, to select books ; 5th, to visit schools twice each term ; 6th, to 
dismiss unfit or incapable teachers ; 7th, to expel obstinately 
disobedient and disorderly scholars ; 8th, to exclude persons 
not vaccinated ; 9th, to report the state of the schools to the 
tion. Section 2 defines what the returns shall include. ist, 
amount of money raised and expended for schools and how 
raised or obtained ; 2d, number of districts and parts of dis- 
tricts. 3d, number of persons* between 4 and 21 years of age on 
May 1st. 4th, number of persons of school age residing on 
islands or in portions of town not classed with any district. 5th, 
whole number and average number attending summer schools 
and same of winter schools. 6th, average length of schools, 
summer, winter, and for the year. 8th, wages of male teachers 
per month and of female teachers per week exclusive of board. 
9th, returns to be made, certified and transmitted to office of 
Secretary of State on or before the first day of April each year. 
When for any reason, only one member of the committee is left, 
it shall be his duty to make the return. Section 3 requires 
parents, masters and guardians to furnish books to pupils. If 
they neglect or refuse, the town shall furnish books and add 
expense to next town tax of the delinquent. Article VI, con- 
taining one section with six subdivisions, treats "of the powers 
and duties of school agents." ist. to call district meetings. 2d, 
to employ teachers. 3d to provide fuel and utensils and make 
repairs. One-tenth of the school money was allowed for repairs, 
exclusive of fuel and insurance. 4th, to notify the committee of 
time when school is to commence ; whether to he kept by master 



42 

or mistress, and for how long a term. 6th, to make annual 
return to the assessors, of the number of scholars in the district. 
Article VII, containing three sections, was devoted to "Duties 
and qualifications of instructors." Section i required teachers 
to keep a register. Section 2 made it the duty of all instructors 
in colleges, academies and schools to inculcate morality and 
virtue. Section 3 prescribed a forfeiture for teaching without 
a certificate and provided that no certificate should be valid for 
more than one year unless annually endorsed by the committee. 
Article VIII, consisting of ten sections, relates to "scholars in 
certain plantations." Article IX, containing fourteen sections, 
treated of "a Board of Education and Secretary ; how elected and 
their powers and duties." Section i provided that the Board 
should consist of one member from each county ; section 2 that 
the members of the Board should be chosen annually by the 
superintending school committees of the several towns, etc., 
etc. ; section 3 treated of the details of conducting meetings for 
the choice of a member of the Board ; section 4 of the time and 
place of holding such meetings ; section 5 provided that the 
Board should meet for organization and for choice of a Secretary 
at Augusta on the first Wednesdaf of May in each year, at which 
time the term of each new Board should commence ; section 6 
treated of the manner of organization, five members to constitute 
a quorum and the Board to have power to fill vacancies if any 
county neglected to do so ; section 7 required the Board at their 
first meeting each year, to choose a Secretary who should hold 
office for one year, or until his successor was chosen ; section 8 
required members of the Board and the Secretary to be sworn 
bv a magistrate ; section 9 prescribed the duties of the members 
and Secretary. They should examine carefully all the laws 
relating to schools and their practical operation ; the Secretary 
should attend the county meetings for election of members : the 
Board, directly or through the agency of the Secretary, should 
collect and disseminate information in regard to the location and 
construction of schoolhouses, the arrangement of school dis- 
tricts and the use of the best school apparatus ; to consult with 
school officers on the best and cheapest method of introducing 
uniform school books, etc. ; to inquire and report upon the 



43 

advantages of normal schools ; to consider the best methods of 
aiding and promoting education in the new settlements of the 
State ; to devise improvements in methods of instruction in 
branches now taught in the common schools and to introduce 
other branches, if practicable, and to promote "all such improve- 
ments in the common school system as may be consistent with 
the constitution and laws of the State and the welfare of its 
inhabitants." It was made the duty of the Board, "before the 
first Wednesday of May, annually, to prepare a report of their 
doings, and the result of their investigations during the preced- 
ing year, which shall be presented to the Governor and by him 
laid before the Legislature." Section lo authorized the Secre- 
tary of State to furnish blank forms for school returns and pro- 
vided that all such returns should be addressed to the Secretary 
of State. Section ii fixed the compensation of the members of 
the Board of Education at one dollar a day for attendance upon 
the meetings of the Board, not to exceed thirty days in each year, 
and ten cents per mile travel from place of residence to place of 
meeting. Section 12 fixed the salary of the Secretary of the 
Board at one thousand dollars "in full for all services and 
expenses." Section 13 required the pay-roll of the Board to be 
audited by the Governor and Council. Section 14 required that 
each member of the Board should have sole charge of the 
teachers' institutes in his county and should make a report to 
the Board, before the first Wednesday in May, of the result of 
his labors, of the quality of the teachers and the condition of the 
schools of his county, together with such other information as 
he may deem necessary and proper. 

Article X contained sixteen articles and was devoted to 
"special provisions relating to the regulation and endowment of 
schools, and afi:"ecting the government and discipline of literary 
institutions." Section i provided that all forfeitures and pen- 
alties under this act should be recovered by indictment before 
any court of competent jurisdiction, the amount of the penalty 
to be paid into the treasury of the town where the same was 
incurred and the costs of prosecution to be turned into the county 
treasury. Section 2 provided that any town neglecting to 
expend the fines and penalties for the support of schools should 
forfeit an equal amount, to the use of any person who should 
sue therefor. 



44 

Section 3 provided that all moneys received for the sale of 
public lands shall be set apart for a common school fund, the 
interest to be distributed among the towns according to the num- 
ber of children between four and twenty-one years of age in the 
town. 

Section 4 specified that all the money received on the bank tax 
should be added to the school fund. Section 5 required the Sec- 
retary of State annually to report to the State Treasurer the 
number of children in each town. Section 6 required the State 
Treasurer, in the month of May of each year, to distribute to 
the several cities, towns and plantations the funds set apart for 
the support of schools, according to the number of children 
between four and twenty-one, provided, however, that no town 
should receive any part of the school fund, unless its returns 
were received by the Secretary of State on, or before, the tenth 
day of April. Section 7 required the Secretary of State to fur- 
nish the "superintending school committees with blanks for mak- 
ing returns. Section 8 provided that the president of any college 
should be removable at any time at the pleasure of the trustees 
who elected him. Section 9 required that all fees for diplomas 
or medical degrees granted by any college should be paid into 
the treasury of said college and no part thereof should be 
received as a perquisite of any officer of the college. Section 10 
provided that no inn-holder, tavern, boarding-house or livery 
stable keeper should give credit to students without the consent 
of the officers of the college or other literary institution. Section 
1 1 provided that no license should be given to any person guilty 
of giving credit to students. Section 12 provided that if any 
person should, contrary to this provision, give credit to a student, 
he should forfeit a sum equal to the amount so credited. Section 
13 prescribed a penalty for interrupting or disturbing schools. 
Section 14 made parents and guardians liable for all injuries 
done by a minor to school property. Section 15 provided that 
in the construction of this act, the word "town" should include 
"city" and "plantation," wherever consistent with the context. 
Section 16 provided that all provisions of the school law should 
apply as well to executions against school districts as against 
towns. Article XI contained three sections and treated of teach- 
ers' institutes. Section i provided for holding teachers' insti- 
tutes for not less than ten working days, "said meetings to be 



45 

held annually in different sections of the county and not oftener 
than once in four years in the same or adjoining towns, except 
in those counties where suitable places cannot be obtained for 
said meeting." Section 2 provided that a sum not to exceed two 
hundred dollars should be expended for the support of each insti- 
tute. Section 3 authorized the Governor to draw his warrant 
upon the treasury for a sum not exceeding twenty-six hundred 
dollars annually to meet the expenses of the institutes. 

Article 12, consisting of one section, repealed by title all acts 
inconsistent with this act. 

Chapter 233, of the public laws of 1852, extended the term for 
which school districts might borrow money, from five to ten 
years. 

Chapter 243 of the acts of 1852 provided for the establishment 
of graded free schools by the union of two or more school dis- 
tricts. Chapter 268 of the same year specified that supervisors 
of schools should be elected annually. Chapter 293 of the public 
laws of 1852 is entitled "An act establishing a Commissioner of 
Common Schools in each county in the State." Section i of this 
act required the Governor and Council to appoint, annually, a 
Commissioner of Common Schools in each county of the State, 
to hold office for one year from the first day of May. Section 2 
specified the duties of the Commissioner "to spend at least fifty 
days (during the term of the winter schools) in visiting the 
towns in his county, for the purpose of promoting, by addresses, 
inquiries and other means, the cause of common school educa- 
tion, and annually to make a report to the Legislature, of his 
doings under this act, of the character of teachers, and of the 
order and condition of the schools and schoolhouses in his 
county, together with such other information and suggestions 
as his experience and observation may enable him to offer, calcu- 
lated to advance the cause of popular education," Section 3 
forbade the School Commissioner to be interested, directly or 
indirectly, in the sale of school books under penalty of forfeiting 
his office and being ineligible to reappointment. Section 4 fixed 
the compensation of the School Commissioners at two hundred 
dollars per year "in full for all services rendered and expenses 
incurred." Section 5 required the Commissioners to be sworn. 
Section 6 is as follows : "All the sections of an act approved 



46 

August twenty-seventh, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty, estabHshing teachers' institutes, a Board 
of Education and Secretary, and also all other acts and parts of 
acts inconsistent with the provisions of this aci are hereby 
repealed." In accordance with the provisions of this act, the 
following named gentlemen were appointed as School Commis- 
sioners in their several counties, viz : York, R. A. Chapman, 
Biddeford ; Cumberland. John M. Adams, Portland ; Lincoln, 
Daniel Small, Thomaston ; Hancock, Charles Jarvis, Ellsworth ; 
Washington, Robert N. Smith, Calais ; Kennebec, David Fales, 
Augusta ; Oxford, William Frye, Bethel ; Somerset, William M. 
E. Brown, Solon; Penobscot, Joseph Bartlett, Bangor; Franklin, 
A. B. Caswell, Farm'ington ; Aroostook, George A. Nourse, 
Limestone ; Waldo, Nathan G. Hichborn, Prospect ; Piscataquis, 
Valentine B. Oak, Sangerville. Messrs. Chapman of York and 
Smith of Washington declined to accept, and Abner Oaks of 
Kennebunk and George F. Talbot of East Machias were substi- 
tuted. Whatever work they may have done is unrecorded for 
no reports remain, if any were ever made. In 1853 the list of 
Commissioners appears as follows, viz : York, Caleb B. Lord, 
Limerick ; Cumberland, John N. Adams, Portland ; Lincoln, 
Joseph T. Huston, Bath ; Hancock, Charles Jarvis, Ellsworth ; 
Washington, George F. Talbot, East Machias ; Kennebec, Wil- 
liam B. Snell, Winthrop ; Oxford, Mark H. Dunnell, Hebron ; 
Somerset, Henry D. Wyman, Skowhegan ; Penobscot, Henry B. 
Haynes, Bangor ; Waldo, Edward H. Cutler, Belfast ; Piscataquis. 
Ephraim P'lint, Dover ; Franklin, Eben F. Pillsbury, Kingfield ; 
Aroostook, Jotham Donnell, Houlton. The system of County 
School Commissioners was hardly given a trial before the law 
establishing it was repealed. 

By an act approved March 30, 1853, the amount to be raised 
and expended by towns for the support of schools was raised 
from forty to fifty cents per inhabitant, exclusive of all other 
iunds for school purposes. This act also empowered any town 
to choose a supervisor of schools instead of a superintending 
school committee, if the town so desired. The age of truants 
was changed from "six and fifteen" to "four and twenty-one," 
thus bringing all persons enumerated as scholars under the pen- 
alties of the truant law. 



47 

Chapter 80 of the public laws of 1854 prescribed the method 
of assessing school taxes in districts formed of parts of two or 
more towns. 

Chapter 89 of the public laws of 1854, by which the system of 
County School Commissioners was abolished and a State Super- 
intendent of Coinmon Schools appointed, is of so much import- 
ance that it is given entire. 

An Act to provide for the appointment of a Superintendent of 
Common Schools and for county conventions of teachers. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
Legislature assembled, as follows : 

Section i. There shall be appointed by the Governor and 
Council a Superintendent of Common Schools, who shall be duly 
sworn and whose term of office shall continue for three years 
from the first day of May next ; and on the expiration of said 
term or the occurrence of a vacancy in said office by death, resig- 
nation or removal a new appointment shall be made for a like 
term of three years. 

Sect. 2. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent to devote 
his time to the improvement of common schools and the promo- 
ion of the general interests of education in this State. He shall 
carefully investigate the operation of our common laws ; collect 
information in regard to the arrangement of school districts, the 
location and construction of schoolhouses and the use of the best 
school appartus ; consult and advise with superintending school 
committees on the selection of text-books adapted to the wants 
of schools, and on the methods of ascertaining the qualifications 
of teachers, and of visiting and examining schools ; inquire into 
the most approved modes of teaching, and the best means of 
training and qualifying teachers for their duties ; examine the 
returns made by superintending school committees to the office 
of Secretary of State, and obtain from them such facts and 
statistics as may be useful, and, in general, procure information 
from every available source, for the improvement of common 
schools. 

Sect. 3. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent, by corres- 
pondence with teachers, school officers and others, and by public 
addresses from time to time in dififerent parts of the State, to dis- 
seminate the information he may have acquired, and endeavor 
to awaken a more general interest in public education. 



48 

vSect. 4. The Superintendent shall annually, prior to the ses- 
sion of the Legislature, make a report to the Governor and Coun- 
cil of the results of his inquiries and investigations, and of the 
facts obtained from the school returns, including such sugges- 
tions and recommendations as in his judgment will best promote 
the improvement of common schools. 

Sect. :;. The Superintendent shall receive an annual salary of 
twelve hundred dollars, payable quarterly, and he shall render 
an account of his traveling and other necessary expenses to the 
Governor and Council, to be by them audited and paid out of the 
treasury of the State. 

Sect. 6. The vSuperintendent shall prepare blank forms for 
all returns which are required by law, or which he may deem 
necessary to be made by school officers and teachers, and such 
blank form shall be printed and distributed by the Secretary of 
State. 

Sect. 7. It shall be the duty of all superintending school 
committees, supervisors and district committees, whose annual 
reports shall be printed, to forward copies thereof to the Super- 
intendent. 

Sect. 8. The Superintendent shall hold annually, in each 
county, a teachers' convention, to continue in session one week 
at least ; and it shall be his duty to give due notice of such con- 
vention to all teachers and persons proposing to become such, and 
to invite their attendance for the purpose of mutual consultation, 
discussion and instruction, and for that of receiving lectures and 
addresses on subjects relating to education and the duties of 
teachers. 

Sect. 9. The Superintendent shall attend and have charge of 
each convention, and shall employ suitable instructors and lec- 
turers to instruct and address those who may there assemble, 
with the view of aiding them in qualifying themselves for a 
better and more successful discharge of their duties as teachers. 

Sect. 10. For the purpose of defraying the expense of the 
teachers' conventions, there shall be annually appropriated the 
sum of two thousand dollars, to be expended by the Superin- 
tendent ; and he shall render to the Governor and Council an 
annual account of his expenditure of the said appropriation, to be 
by them exammed and audited. 



49 

Sect. II. The act entitled "An act establishing a Commis- 
sioner of Common Schools, in each county in the State," passed 
the twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, is hereby repealed. 

Mr. Charles H. Lord of Portland was the first State Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools, having been appointed June 12, 
1854. His report is a scholarly production, making thirty-six 
printed pages, and is devoted to an account of his visits to 
schools in various portions of the State and of his observations 
and experiences during those visits. The particular evils spoken 
of in the report are irregularity in attendance, want of interest on 
the part of parents, lack of discipline, incompetent teachers and 
improper classification. He recommended a normal school for 
the instruction of teachers and some means of awakening an 
intelligent interest on the part of parents. His report contains 
no tables nor statistics regarding schools or the expense of their 

maintenance. 

Chapter 104 of the Public Laws of 1854 gave towns the right 
to determine the number and limits of school districts and, if 
necessary, to divide or discontinue any district or to annex it to 
any other district or town. These changes could only be made 
upon the written recommendation of the selectmen and superin- 
tending school committee of the town, who were constituted a 
committee for that purpose. Section 2 of this law raised the per 
capita tax from fifty cents to sixty cents exclusive of all moneys 
received from any other source for the support of common 
schools. Section 3 made it the duty of the school agent to 
expend the money apportioned to his district for the support of 
schools taught by instructors, duly qualified, in said district, 
within the year for which such agent was chosen. If the agent 
neglected or refused to expend the money as the law required, 
the municipal officers were empowered to appoint a special agent 
who should be sworn and should have all the powers and per- 
form all the duties of the school agent for said district. 

Sect. 4 authorized any city or town choosing a committee, with 
the powers of committees and agents, to elect one-third of such 
committee annually and for three years, instead of electing the 
whole committee annually as formerly. Section 5 gave school 
districts the right tO elect a district committee in the same man- 
ner as was allowed to towns. Section 6 required the State 
4 



50 

Treasurer to set apart all moneys received from the sale of school 
lands, to serve as a permanent school fund, the interest of which 
at six per cent, should be annually distributed among the several 
cities and towns in the State according to the numtjer of inhab- 
itants. Section 7 empowered towns to take land for school- 
houses if the owner refused to sell, and gave the selectmen, or 
mayor and aldermen, power to select a lot, not exceeding in 
quantity forty square rods, and at least ten rods from any dwell- 
ing-house, and to appraise the damages in the same manner as 
is provided for laying out town ways. 

Section 8 provided that if the owner of the lot was not satisfied 
with the appraisal he might have the matter settled by a jury 
appointed by the County Commissioners. The land so taken 
should revert to the owner when it had ceased for two years to 
be used for school purposes. 

In March, 1855, Mark H. Bunnell of Norway was appointed 
to succeed Mr. Lord as State Superintendent of Common 
Schools. Mr. Bunnell made a very carefully written report, 
followed by full statistical tables, also plans for schoolhouses and 
common school apparatus and extracts from the reports of super- 
intending school committees of many of the cities and towns 
throughout the State. The following "summary of statistics 
relating to the Common Schools of the State for the school year 
ending April i, 1855," is given in this report. 

Number of towns in the State, 384 

Number of towns that have made returns, 379 

Number of towns that have made no returns, .... 5 

Number of organized plantations, 99 

Number that have made returns, 62 

Number that have made no returns, 37 

Number of school districts in the State, 3>965 

Number of parts of districts, '2']'j 

Number of children in the State between the ages 

of 4 and 21 years, 238,248 

Number of scholars in the summer schools, 123,641 

Average number in the summer schools, 91,894 

Number of scholars in the winter schools, 142,220 

Average number in the winter schools, 100,560 

Mean average in summer and winter schools, .... 96,227 

Ration of mean average to whole number, .44 



51 

Number of male teachers, 2,559 

Number of female teachers 4A37 

Average wages of male teachers per month, ex- 
clusive of board, $20 57 

Average wages of female teachers per week, ex- 
clusive of board, i 90 

Average length of all the schools for the year,. . . 18.9 weeks 
Amount of money raised by taxes for the support 

of schools in 1854, $333,019 ^6 

Amount required by law, 281,148 00 

Excess over amount required by law, S^jS/i 76 

Amount of money received from State, 54)398 96 

Amount received from local funds, 16,990 57 

Amount expended for private schools, 23,843 00 

Number of schoolhouses built the past year,. ... 128 

Cost of same, $62,808 00 

Aggregate amount expended for school purposes 

the past year, 491,060 29 

Number of good schoolhouses in the State, i)752 

Number of poor schoolhouses, 2,088 

Estimated value of the schoolhouses in the State, $870,005 00 
Average amount of school money raised per 

scholar, i 36 

Amount received from the State per scholar, .... .30 
Number of towns that have raised, as required in 

1854, 50 cents per inhabitant, 292 

Number of towns that have raised less than 50 

cents per inhabitant, 75 

Percentage of the valuation of 1850 appropriated 

to common schools, in mills and tenths, .0034 

Number of towns that have raised $3.00 or more 

per scholar, 3 

Number of towns that have raised $2.00 and less 

than $3.00, 23 

Number of towns that have raised $1.00 and less 

than $2.00, 334 

Number that have raised less than $1.00, 22 

During the year 1855 teachers' conventions were held in 
every county. These conventions in most instances continued 



52 

through five days. Sixty-nine public lectures were delivered at 
the evening sessions and much interest was manifested. The 
number of teachers in attendance at all of the conventions was 
1,691. 

Chapter 127 of the public laws of 1855 provided that superin- 
tending school committees should be entitled to all necessary 
traveling expenses. Chapter 128 stated that one-half of the fine 
for violation of the school laws in regard to disturbing schools 
should go to the complainant. Chapter 147, of 1855, directed 
municipal officers and school committees "annually to apportion 
ten cents of the sixty cents required to be raised'' per inhabitant 
"in such manner as in their judgment shall give to the smaller 
districts a more equal opportunity of enjoying the benefits of 
common school education with the larger districts." 

Chapter 154, of 1855, required towns to make all needful pro- 
visions concerning habitual truants. A resolve, approved April 
9, 1856, authorized the Land Agent, under the advice and 
direction of the Governor and Council, to set apart a quantity of 
the public lands equal to twenty-four half townships, "to be 
reserved and applied for the benefit of common schools, and to 
be held in trust for that purpose only." This resolve provided 
for the sale of not more than one township each year, the pro- 
ceeds to be appropriated as a permanent fund for the benefit of 
common schools, the interest of which fund should be annually 
distributed among the towns according to the number of scholars. 
Chapter 228 of the public laws of 1856 provided that when three 
school committee were elected at one time, they should at their 
first meeting designate by lot one member to remain in office 
three years, another two and the other one year. Chapter 230 
of the laws of 1856 repealed the act passed in 1855 directing 
that ten cents of the sixty cent per capita tax should be distribu- 
ted among the smaller districts. 

J. P. Craig of Readfield, was appointed State Superintendent 
of Common Schools for the year ending December 31, 1856. 
From the statistics of his report the following items are taken, 
viz : 
Whole number of children between 4 and 21,.. 241,097 

Average number in school for the year 89,712 

Average wages of male teachers per month, $21 96 

Average wages of female teachers per week, 211 



53 

Aggregate expenditures for school purposes in 

the State, $499,424 00 

Teachers' institutes were held during this year in every 
county. 

By a resolve approved April 13, 1857, it was directed that 
twenty per cent, of all moneys accruing from the sale of the 
public lands should be added to the permanent school fund for 
the benefit of common schools. The State Superintendent was 
directed to prepare in pamphlet form a compilation of the laws 
relating to public schools for distribution among the school 
officers throughout the State. By a resolve approved March 
6, 1857, the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars was appro- 
priated from the State Treasury to be expended by the school 
committee of Oldtown for education among the Penobscot 
Indians. 

Mark H. Dunnell was appointed State Superintendent in 1857 
and remained in office until i860, during which period there 
were no important changes in school legislation. 

The first State teachers' convention ever held in Maine met in 
Waterville, on the i6th of November, 1859, and continued in 
session three days. The exercises consisted of lectures and 
essays upon educational subjects, followed by discussion. A 
State Teachers' Association was organized, officers were chosen, 
a constitution and by-laws adopted and provision made for an 
annual meeting. 

Chapter 163 of the laws of i860 gave towns the power to 
apportion ten per cent, of the per capita tax for the benefit of the 
smaller districts. Chapter 192 of the public laws of i860 
repealed the act providing for teachers' conventions. Section i 
of this act appropriated eighteen hundred dollars for that year 
and directed that thirty-six hundred dollars should thereafter 
be annually appropriated for the support of normal schools in 
connection with eighteen academies in the State. Section 2 pro- 
vided that in each of these academies a normal school shouid 
be "kept" during the spring and fall terms, each term to be not 
less than eleven weeks, with suitable and qualified teachers and 
good accommodations for at least fifty pupils. Section 3 provided 
that a committee appointed by the trustees of each academy 
should examine in common school branches all pupils applying 



54 

for admission to the normal school, and if in their opinion two 
terms of instruction would fit the applicant to teach, they should 
give him or her a certificate of admission. Care was to be taken 
that an equal number, population considered, should be admitted 
from each town. Females were to have preference in the spring 
term and males in the fall term. Section 4 prescribed that each 
male student should pay, upon entering, one dollar, and each 
female student fifty cents per term in full for tuition for said 
term. Section 5 required the State Superintendent to visit each 
academy during each term of normal school, examine the course 
of study and character of instruction and make such rules for 
the management of the school as he saw fit. Section 6 reduced 
the salary of the State Superintendent from twelve hundred to 
one thousand dollars per year, with not exceeding four hundred 
dollars for expenses. The remaining sections provided that 
the trustees of the several academies designated should make full 
returns, at the close of each term, to the Secretary of State on 
blanks furnished by him and prepared by the State Superinten- 
dent. Also that in case any academy designated should decline 
or fail to accept the provisions of the act, the Governor, with the 
advice of the State Superintendent, should name some other 
academy in the same county. Also that former acts inconsistent 
with this act be repealed. 

Mr. E. P. Weston was appointed State Superintendent in i860 
for the term of three years. The act providing for county 
normal schools was amended by Chapter 12 of the public laws 
of 1861. This act provided, first, that the two hundred dollars 
allowed each academy should be paid in installments of one 
hundred dollars each on the first day of May and November 
annually, on certificate of the State Superintendent that the law 
had been complied with. Second, each term of normal instruc- 
tion should continue ten weeks. Third, the Superintendent 
should prescribe such qualifications for admission as would 
enable the students to pursue their subsequent course with uni- 
formity and success and the committee should issue certificates 
of admission to those who passed a satisfactory examination. 
Fourth, each student was required to pay three dollars per term 
for instruction in the normal course. Fifth, in case the academy 
designated in anv countv should fail to fulfill the provisions of 



55 



the act, and no other school in the county be selected, the super- 
intendent was authorized to hold a normal institute, not exceed- 
ing ten days, at any suitable place in the county, provided he was 
assured that not less than one hundred students desired to attend 
the institute; and he was allowed to draw the amount appro- 
priated for the normal school of such county, to defray the 
expenses of said institute. 

Chapter 55, of the public laws of 1861, gave districts maintain- 
ing graded schools the right to raise money by taxation for the 
support of such schools. It also raised the amount allowed the 
State Superintendent for traveling and other expenses from 
four hundred dollars to five hundred dollars per year. 

During the same year the truant law was amended, making 
the age of compulsory attendance at school "between six and 
seventeen" and requiring towns to appoint one person instead of 
three to make complaint for violations of the truant law. 
Chapter 72 of the public laws of 1862 repealed the laws provid- 
ing for county normal schools and made it the duty of the State 
Superintendent to visit the academic institutions when "con- 
sistent with his other duties" and "assist the teachers' classes 
there organized in acquiring a .familiarity with the best methods 
of instruction and school management." Section 3 of this act 
is as follows: "With the view to the future establishment of 
one or more State normal schools which, in point of character, 
shall be worthy of the State and the age, the Superintendent is 
authorized to receive from any individuals or from the trustees 
of any institution, proposals for conducting the same, with 
offers of buildings, funds and apparatus, the same to be reported 
to the next Legislature for such action as the circumstances of 
the State and of the treasury may warrant." 

Chapter 92, of 1862, reduced the amount allowed the State 
Superintendent for traveling and other expenses from five hun- 
dred dollars to two hundred dollars. Chapter 103, of 1862, 
repealed the provision of the school law allowing towns to choose 
a supervisor of schools and inserted in its stead a clause allowing 
the school committee to appoint one of their number who should 
have power to visit and examine schools and make the annual 
report. It struck out the clause requiring a schoolhouse to be 
"ten rods at least from any dwelling house." It made it the duty 



5^^ 

of the superintending school committee to select a uniform sys- 
tem of text-books to be used in the schools of the town, and pro- 
vided that a text-book once adopted should not be changed for 
five years unless by vote of the town. It also provided that the 
school agent should call a meeting of his district, annually, in the 
month of March or April, without a written application. Chap- 
ter 210, of the public laws of 1863, provided for the establish- 
ment of two normal schools. The term of office of Superin- 
tendent Weston having expired, he was reappointed, in 1863. 

Chapter 217, of 1863, remitted to the banks of the State an 
amount of their State tax equal to the amount required to be 
paid to the United States by the law establishing the national 
banks. This remission took from the school fund over $39,000. 
Chapter 339, of the resolves of 1864, directed the Land Agent to 
sell the lumber and timber upon "any township of land belonging 
to the State not already selected for the permanent school fund 
and not otherwise appropriated," "the proceeds of said sale of 
lumber and timber to be paid into the State Treasury for educa- 
tional purposes." The Western State Normal School was opened 
at Farmmgton August 24, 1864. State Superintendent E. P. 
Weston resigned his office at the close of the year 1864 and Rev. 
Edward Ballard of Brunswick was in May, 1865, appointed to 
succeed him. 

The amount of school fund derived from the bank tax con- 
tinued to decrease, and to supply the deficiency the amount to 
be raised by the towns for the support of schools was increased 
from sixty cents to seventy-five cents for each inhabitant and 
any town neglecting to raise the required amount was by law 
deprived of its share of the State school fund. Each school agent 
was required to return to the school committee, in the month of 
April, annually, a certified list of the names and ages of all per- 
sons in his district from four to twenty-one years, as they existed 
on April first, excepting those coming from other places to attend 
any college or academy or to work in any factory or other 
business. In case the agent neglected to make the enumeration, 
the school committee were required to do it, the expense to be 
taken from the amount apportioned the district. The committee 
^vere required to return to the assessors, on or before the fif- 
teenth of May, annually, the number of scholars in each school 



57 

district. Any district maintaining graded schools was allowed 
to raise for their support a sum not exceeding that received from 
the town. In order to increase the amount of money available 
for the common schools the Legislature passed a resolve in 1866, 
"That the residuary interest of the State in the public lands 
shall be applied in aid of the permanent school fund of the 
State." 

In 1867, the State Teachers' Association held a meeting in 
Lewiston, the first for several years, and a renewed interest was 
awakened in the society. Chapter 'j'j of the public laws of 1867 
allowed assessors of plantations organized for election purposes 
to take a census of the inhabitants at the expense of the planta- 
tion, as a basis for raising and expending school money. Chap- 
ter 81 amended the school laws, thereby making it the duty of the 
Secretary of State to forward blank returns and school registers 
to the several town clerks, to be by them delivered to the super- 
intending school committee. Chapter 83 fixed the pay of school 
committees and supervisors at one dollar and fifty cents per day, 
and all necessary traveling expenses. Chapter 93 allowed dis- 
tricts to raise money and choose committees to build, buy or hire 
schoolhouses, and the assessors should assess the tax upon the 
polls and the estates in the district "including wild lands." 
Chapter 132 provided that when districts neglected to furnish 
necessary schoolhouses, the town might vote to do so at its 
annual meeting. Also that in districts not having any legal 
voters, the town should transact the business of the district and 
the school committee should perform the duties of school agents 
therein. By a resolve the Secretary of State was instructed to 
cause the school laws to be compiled and 8,000 copies to be 
printed for distribution. A normal school was, during this year, 
established at Castine. 

In 1868 the per capita tax to be raised by towns for the sup- 
port of schools was increased to one dollar for each inhabitant. 
A resolve was passed giving the sum of two hundred dollars 
to the Maine Educational Association, which was thus for the 
first time recognized by the Legislature. Another resolve directed 
the Land Agent within six months of the passage of the resolve 
to set apart the ten townships devoted to common school pur- 
poses by resolve of March 21, 1864. By far the most important 



58 

item of school legislation in 1868 was Chapter 221, which stated 
more definitely the duties of the State Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools and required that an office should be provided for 
him at the State House. This act was as follows : 

"An Act to increase the efficiency of the State Supervisor of 
Common Schools." 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
Legislature assembled, as follows : 

Section i. The Governor and Council shall appoint a State 
Superintendent of Common Schools, who shall be duly sworn 
and continue in office three years, or during the pleasure of the 
Executive ; and when a vacancy occurs, a new appointment shall 
be made for a like term. 

Sect. 2. An office shall be provided for the State Superin- 
tendent at the seat of government, where he shall preserve all 
school reports of this State and of other States which may be 
sent to his office, the returns of the superintending school com- 
mittees of the various towns, and such books, apparatus, maps, 
charts, works on education, plans for school buildings, models, 
and other articles of interest to school officers and teachers as 
may be procured without expense to the State. 

DUTIES OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 

Sect. 3. The duties of the State Superintendent shall be as 
follows. 

First — To exercise a general supervision of all the' public 
schools of the State, and to advise and to direct the town com- 
mittees in the discharge of their duties, by circular letters and 
personal conference, devoting all his time to the duties of his 
office. 

Second — To obtain information as to the school systems of 
other States and countries, and the condition and progress of 
common school education throughout the world ; to disseminate 
this information, together with such practical hints upon the 
conduct of schools and the true theory of education as obser- 
vation and investigation shall convince him to be important, by 
public addresses, circulars, and articles prepared for the press ; 
and to do all in his power to awaken and sustain an interest in 



59 

■education among the people of the State, and to stimulate 
teachers to well directed efforts in their work. 

Third — To take such measures as he may deem necessary to 
secure the holding of a State educational convention once each 
year, with a view of bringing together teachers, school commit- 
tees and friends of education generally, for the purposes of con- 
sultation with reference to the interests of common schools and 
the most improved method of instruction. 

Pourth—-ln case sufficient encouragement is afforded by the 
citizens, to hold in each county once during each year a public 
meeting or mstitute for teachers and educators. 

Fifth — To prepare and cause to be printed and distributed 
such portions of the proceedings of the county and State insti- 
tutes of teachers' conventions as he may deem important in the 
furtherahce of the interests of education. 

Sixth — To prescribe the studies that shall be taught in the 
common schools of this State, reserving to town committees the 
right to prescribe additional studies. 

Seventh — To act as Superintendent of the State normal 
schools, and perform the duties imposed upon the Superintendent 
of Common Schools by the ninth section of the act establishing 
normal schools. 

Eighth — Annually, prior to the session of the Legislature, to 
make a report to the Governor and Council of the result of his 
inquiries and investigations, and the facts obtained from the 
school returns, with such suggestions and recommendations as 
in his judgment will best promote the improvement of common 
schools. 

Sect. 4. The annual salary of the State Superintendent shall 
be eighteen hundred dollars, exclusive of traveling and other 
necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of his duties, for 
which he shall receive such sums as he may actually expend, to 
"be approved by the Governor and Council, not, however, exceed- 
ing five hundred dollars, to be paid quarterly, on the first days 
of April, July, October and January. 

Sect. 5. Sections sixty-two to sections sixty-nine, inclusive, 
of chapter eleven of the revised statutes, providing for the 
appointment of a Superintendent of Common Schools, and all 
acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act, are hereby 
repealed. 



6o 

On March 30, 1868, Mr. Warren Johnson was appointed State 
Superintendent of Common Schools. In his first report he 
emphasizes several causes which stood in the way of the complete 
success of the school system. The principal among these were 
the district system, the lack of school inspection, incompetency of 
teachers, the low rate of wages paid teachers and short terms of 
schools. 

Several acts in the interest of education were passed in 1869. 
Chapter 13, of 1869, made it the duty of the State Superintend- 
ent to prepare and forward blanks and registers to the town 
clerks ; and the school committees or supervisors were required 
to make their returns on the first day of May to the State Super- 
intendent, who should ascertain the number of scholars in the 
several towns and furnish a list of them to the State Treasurer 
on the first day of July, and immediately thereafter the State 
Treasurer should apportion the school fund and notify each 
town of its proportion. No town should receive its proportion 
of the school fund until its returns were made. Chapter 50 pro- 
vided a penalty of not exceeding five hundred dollars for the 
violation of the law in regard to change of text-books. Chapter 
69 allowed cities to take land for schoolhouses in the same man- 
ner as towns. Chapter 74 made it the duty of the State Superin- 
tendent, on the written request of twenty-five teachers in any 
county to hold a teachers' institute in that county. An examina- 
tion of teachers should be held at the close of the session and 
certificates granted of such grade as deemed best by the State 
Superintendent. The sum of four thousand dollars was appro- 
priated to defray the expense of these institutes. Chapter 75 
was as follows : 

An Act for the establishment of County Supervisorships of 
schools. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
Legislature assembled, as follows : 

Section i. The Governor and Council shall appoint for each 
county, on the recommendation of the State Superintendent of 
Common Schools, one person as County Supervisor of Public 
Schools for each county, whose term of office shall continue three 
years, unless he be sooner removed by the Governor. 

Sect. 2. It shall be the duty of the County Supervisor to visit 
the schools of his county as often as practicable, to note at such 



6i 

visits in a book provided for the purpose, to be designated the 
*' Supervisor's Visiting Book," the condition of the school build- 
ings and outhouses, the efficiency of the teachers, the method of 
instruction, the branches taught, the text-books and apparatus 
used, and the discipline, government and general condition of 
each school. He shall give each such directions in the science, 
art and method of teaching as he may deem expedient, shall 
distribute promptly all reports, forms, laws, circulars and instruc- 
tions which he may receive from, and in accordance with the 
direction of the State Superintendent, and in general shall act as 
the official advisor and constant assistant of the school officers 
and teachers in his county. 

Sect. 3. He shall assist the State Superintendent in the organ- 
ization and management of county institutes, and labor in every 
practicable way to elevate the standard of teaching and improve 
the condition of public schools in his county, by organizing town 
and county associations of teachers, and by personal efforts with 
pupils, school committees, teachers and parents. 

Sect. 4. No County Supervisor shall act as agent for any 
author, publisher or book-seller, nor directly or indirectly receive 
any gift, emolument or reward for his influence in recommend- 
ing or procuring the use of any book, school apparatus or furni- 
ture of any kind whatever in any public school in the State ; and 
anyone who shall violate this provision shall be removed from 
office, and shall further forfeit all moneys due him from the State 
for salary and traveling expenses. 

Sect. 5. The State Superintendent and the County Supervi- 
sors shall constitute a State Board of Education, of which the 
State Superintendent shall be ex ofRcio Secretary, and said Board 
shall hold a session at the capital of the State at least once a year 
during the session of the Legislature, for the purpose of confer- 
ring with the legislative educational committee on matters per- 
taining to the common schools of the State, and to mature plans 
of operations for the following year, and in general to devise 
wavs and means to promote and elevate the public schools of the 
State. 

Sect. 6. The County Supervisor shall receive three dollars 
per diem for service actually performed in the discharge of his 
duties, and also reimbursement for traveling expenses necessarily 
incurred ; said services and traveling expenses to appear in his 



62 

"working report." rendered quarterly to the State Supermtend- 
ent for his inspection, and thence transmitted to the Governor 
and Council for their examination and approval ; provided that 
the total annual expense for County Supervisorships shall not 
exceed the sum of sixteen thousand dollars. 

. The following named gentlemen were appointed as County 
Supervisors for the term of three years : Androscoggin, C. B. 
Stetson, Lewiston ; Aroostook, W. T. Sleeper, ShtTman ; Cum- 
berland, J. B. Webb, Gorham; Franklin, A. H. Abbott, Farm- 
ington ; Hancock, Charles J . Abbott, Castine ; Kennebec, W. H^ 
Bigelow, Clinton ; Knox, A. R. Abbott, Rockland ; Lincoln,. 
David S. Glidden, Newcastle; Oxford, N. T. True, Bethel: 
Piscataquis, W. S. Knowlton, Monson ; Penobscot, S. A. Plum- 
mer, Dexter ; Sagadahoc, D. F. Potter, Topsham ; Somerset, 
G. W. Hathaway, Skowhegan ; Waldo, N. A. Luce, Freedom ; 
Washington, W. J. Corthell, Calais ; York, Charles H. Milliken, 
Saco. 

The State Superintendent issued the following instructions tO' 
the County Supervisors. 

1st, Preliminary. Examine carefully the several requirements 
and provisions of the legislative act by which the office of 
County Supervisorship was established. A copy of this act has 
been sent you in circular No. 3. 

2nd. Preparatory. Lay out your tour for visiting the several 
towns and districts in your department, while the schools are 
in session. Determine as nearly as possible the towns to be 
visited, and time of visitation, notifying the town committee of 
the same. If all the schools in the county cannot be visited in the 
same year, omit towns rather than districts, thus doing thorough 
work in each town. Make the required entries in "Visiting-^ 
Book." 

3d, Inside Work. Visit schools in company with the super- 
intending school committee. Ascertain from teacher the classi- 
fication of the school, order and length of recitations, kinds of 
charts, apparatus and text-books used, amount of truancy, and 
witness work of teacher in the regular and ordinary recitations. 
Take recitations into your own hands if desirable, to wake up 
pupils and to stimulate teachers. Make suggestions and 
improvements to teacher directly, or to the committee, as may be 
deemed politic and prudent. 



63 

4th, Outside Work. Hold a meeting of teachers, committees. 
and educators in every town visited, some day or evening of the 
week to communicate instruction and improved methods of 
teaching, to ascertain difficulties in the way of success, and in 
general for mutual consultation in the interests of common 
schools. 

5th, Meet the people as often as possible in different parts of 
the county, for plain talk on various school matters, according 
to the wants of particidar localities, such as "Better and larger 
School Houses," "Compulsory Attendance," "School District 
System," "Union of Districts," "Text-books," etc. 

6th. Make frequent use of the county papers and the press 
generally. The press is most emphatically a power ready for 
every good work. A column of educational intelligence will 
indicate life in the educational body, and will exert a wide- 
spread influence through the community. 

7th. Prepare fully for the annual County Teachers' Institute. 
Rouse teachers to an earnest desire for attending. Secure the 
required petition. Select place for holding the Institute. Pro- 
vide accommodations for teachers ; free for the ladies if possible, 
and in general, arranging for and managing the institute. 

8th. Make quarterly returns of per diem and traveling- 
expenses, and of the "Visiting Book." Make an annual report 
December i, embracing at least the following points : 

(a) A general review of work done during the year, (b) 
General condition of schools and schoolhouses, quality of instruc- 
tion and educational interest among the people, (c) Of County 
Institutes and teachers' meeting, if any have been held, (d) 
Defects of school system in Maine, and recommendations apply- 
ing thereto. 

The foregoing directions will indicate a plan of operations 
for the whole State. Teachers will be provided for the annual 
County Institutes to be held between the first of August and the 
last of November. Supervisors will report at the earliest oppor- 
tunity the most desirable time for holding the Institute in their 
respective counties, that notice may be issued and arrangements 
made accordingly." 

From the excellent report of State Superintendent Corthell 
for 1876, which report has been of much assistance in making 
up this sketch, the following extract is made : 



64 

"The teachers' institutes, revived this year, were largely 
attended. Thorough preparation was made for them by the 
county supervisors. Twenty-nine institutes of one week each 
were held. Two thousand six hundred and fifty teachers 
attended. Examinations of teachers were held at the close of 
these institutes, and a graded certificate granted to all examined, 
showing the exact rank obtained by each. 

A new impulse was given to the schools of the State by means 
of this new agency of inspection. The classification of the 
schools was greatly improved, the average number of classes 
being reduced from twenty-five to sixteen. The poorer and more 
incompetent teachers were driven from the business. A greater 
public interest in education was aroused. The demand for 
competent teachers was increased. Teachers were stimulated to 
new efforts, both to fit themselves for their work and to do 
better work." 

In 1870 the first movement was made toward the abolition of 
the district system, by the passage of a law permitting towns to 
abolish the districts, and providing the way for the town to own 
all school property and manage all public schools. Another law 
authorized the committee or supervisor to employ teachers. 
Another empowered towns to purchase school books and loan 
them to the pupils or sell them at cost. The school week was 
fixed at five and one-half days and the school month at four 
weeks. School officers were empowered "to allow the school- 
house to be used for meetings of religious worship, lectures and 
other similar purposes." 

Several changes in the corps of County Supervisors were made 
during 1870. C. J. Abbott, of Hancock, resigned and William 
H, Savary was appointed. G. M. Hinds was appointed in Knox 
County, vice A. R. Abbott, deceased. Amos H. Eaton was 
appointed in Somerset County, vice G. W. Hathaway, resigned. 
M. K. Mabry was appointed in Knox County, vice C. H. Milli- 
ken, resigned. By three several acts passed in 1871, cities and 
towns were authorized to make provision for giving free instruc- 
tion in industrial or mechanical drawing to persons over fifteen 
years of age, either in day or evening schools ; school officers 
were empowered to endorse and make valid any graded certifi- 
cates issued to teachers by normal school principals. County 
Supervisors or State Superintendent of common schools, and 



I 



65 

towns were permitted to decide by vote, at the annual meeting 
whether the district agent or superintending school committee 
should employ teachers. Superintendent Johnson was reap- 
pointed in 1871 for a term of three years. D. F. Potter, Super- 
visor for Sagadahoc County, resigned and S. F. Dike of Bath 
was appointed in his place. 

Important school legislation was enacted in 1872. Chapter 3 
more clearly indicated how land may be taken for a school lot 
when the owner refused to sell or demanded an exorbitant price. 
Chapter 11 required State normal schools and schools having 
normal departments aided by the State, to make annual returns 
to the State Superintendent, on or before December first. Chap- 
ter 43 established the school mill fund for the support of common 
schools. This act directed that a tax of one mill per dollar 
should be annually assessed upon all the property of the State and 
should be paid into the State treasury and designated as the School 
Mill Fund and should be distributed July first, annually, to the 
several cities, towns and plantations, according to the number of 
scholars in each. All portions not distributed or expended 
should at the close of the financial year be added to the per- 
manent school fund. Chapter 56 reduced the per capita school 
tax from one dollar to eighty cents per inhabitant. Chapter 67 
repealed the act establishing County Supervisors of schools. 
Chapter 74 required savings banks to pay to the State Treasurer 
a tax of one-half of one per cent, on all deposits, to be appro- 
priated for the use of schools. Chapter yj changed the time of 
the distribution of the mill fund from July first to January first. 
Chapter 87 provided that when school agents are empowered by 
the town to employ teachers, they should give written notice to 
the committee or supervisor, when the school was to commence, 
whether to be taught by a master or mistress, and how long it 
v/as expected to continue. In 1873 the Governor and Council 
were instructed to withhold the portion of the school fund and 
mill tax from any town neglecting to raise and expend the school 
money required by law, or faithfully to expend the school money 
received from the State. The branches to be taught in common 
schools were defined. The items to be entered in the school 
registers were specified. The right of cities and towns to locate 
school lots was more clearly defined. A penalty for injuring or 



66 

destroying text-books was provided. An act in aid of free high 
schools was passed. By this act towns were empowered to 
estabhsh free high schools and receive from the State "one-half 
the amount actually expended for instruction in said school, not, 
however, exceeding five hundred dollars from the State to any 
one town." 

In 1874 State Superintendent Johnson was reappointed for a 
term of three years. A fine was provided for defacing school- 
houses. It was specified that the ten per cent, of the school fund 
allowed to be given small districts should not apply to free high 
school fund. Some changes were made in the free high school 
law. 

In 1875 the percentage of school money allowed to be appor- 
tioned to small districts was raised from ten per cent, to twenty 
per cent. Towns were allowed to draw State aid for free high 
schools semi-annually. The act establishing teachers' institutes 
was abolished. The State Superintendent was instructed to 
cause the school laws to be compiled and five thousand copies 
printed and distributed. Every child between the ages of nine 
and fifteen years was required to attend school at least twelve 
weeks in each year unless excused by the school officers. 

In 1876, the towns were made responsible for the faithful 
expenditure of the school fund. Chapter 68, of 1876, required 
municipal officers to make sworn returns of all amounts received 
and expended for school purposes. Blanks were to be furnished 
by the State Superintendent and no town could receive its share 
of the school fund until its fiscal returns were properly made. 
Some slight amendment was made to the free high school law, 
and school agents were required to make oath to their lists of 
scholars. In 1876, W. J. Corthell was appointed State Superin- 
tendent of Schools. 

In 1877, the law allowing districts to raise money for graded 
schools was slightly amended and by an act approved February 
8, 1877, it was provided that no money appropriated to the use 
and support of public schools should be paid from any city, town 
or plantation treasury, for schools, except upon the written order 
of the municipal officers and no order should be drawn except 
upon receipt of a properly avouched bill of items. 

By an act approved Feb. 9, 1878, it was provided that no town 
or plantation which neglected to raise the amount required by 



6; 

law for the support of schools should, during that year, receive 
any part of the State school fund. An additional normal school 
was established in 1878 at Gorham. Mr. Corthell resigned his 
position as State Superintendent and accepted the place of prin- 
cipal of the new normal school, and N. A. Luce was appointed 
to succeed him. Mr. Luce entered upon the duties of his office 
December 31, 1878 and served until the next April, when, owing 
to a political change in the State administration, he was removed 
and was succeeded by Mr. Edward Morris of Biddeford. In 
February, 1880, the political character of the administration 
having again changed, Mr. Morris was removed and Mr. Luce 
reappointed. In 1878 the Madawaska training school for 
teachers was established and the towns in the "Madawaska 
territory," so called, were exempted from raising the per capita 
tax of eighty cents for schools and a special sum was named for 
each town or plantation to raise. 

By an act approved February 20, 1879, the Governor and 
Council were authorized to send such deaf mutes as they deemed 
fit subjects for instruction, at the expense of the State, to the 
American Asylum at Hartford, Conn., or the Portland School 
for the Deaf. Chapter 131, laws of 1879, provided that the Free 
High School act of 1873 and the act of the same year enabling 
academies to surrender their property to towns in favor of free 
high- schools, should be suspended for one year. Chapter 146, 
of 1879, entitled "An act in relation to Free High Schools," is 
as follows : "Any town may establish and maintain not exceed- 
ing two free high schools, and may raise money for their sup- 
port." By these two acts it will be seen that the State aid to 
free high schools was temporarily withdrawn. 

In 1880 the first move towards consolidation of schools was 
made. Chapter 181, of 1880, provided that when a board con- 
sisting of the municipal officers and the school committee, or 
supervisor, considered that the number of scholars in any dis- 
trict was too few for the profitable expenditure of the money 
apportioned to that district, they might suspend the school and 
expend the money in an adjoining district and might use one- 
half the money due the suspended school for conveyance of the 
scholars to and from school in the adjoining district. This law, 
together with the law already upon the statute books allowing 
towns to abolish the school districts and assume the management 



68 



of all public schools in the town, was a long step towards the 
complete abolition of the district system. Formerly the school 
district had been the ultimate imit of power in regard to the 
management of schools and its authority was well nigh supreme. 
But the handwriting was upon the wall and the old district sys- 
tem was destined to give way to the better methods demanded 
by advanced ideas upon the subject of school management. 

By chapter 229, of 1880, the free high school system, with 
State aid, was restored, the maximum amount allowed any one 
town from the State being reduced from five hundred to two 
hundred and fifty dollars. These two important acts completed 
the legislation of 1880 in regard to schools. 

In 1881, the Maine Pedagogical Society was incorporated "for 
the purpose of promoting the interests of education and work of 
instruction in this State." Chapter 24, of 1881, gave school 
committees and supervisors the power to close the school in any 
district "on account of any contagious disease or other good 
reason." This act was another severe blow to the power and 
authority of school districts. Chapter 27, of 1881, made women 
eligible to the office of supervisor of schools or of superintending 
school committee. By a resolve the sum of eight hundred dol- 
lars for each of the years 1881 and 1882 (the State having 
adopted biennial sessions of the Legislature) was appropriated 
for the expenses of teachers' meetings "one meeting or more to 
be held in each county in the State." 

In 1883 the first act passed by the Legislature provided that 
"A plan for the erection or reconstruction of a schoolhouse 
voted by a town or a district shall first be approved by the super- 
intending school committee." Chapter loi, of 1883, provided 
that in towns which had abolished the district system, the loca- 
tion of school houses should be designated by vote of the town 
*'at any town meeting called for that purpose." Chapter 129, 
of 1883, required school committees to make sworn returns of 
free high schools before the first day of June in each year. 
Chapter 187, of 1883, provided that, in towns or cities that had 
abolished the district system, the school committee, or supervisor, 
should determine the time of commencement and duration of tlie 
schools. Chapter 240, of 1883. stated that the sHionJ week 
should consist of five days, (formerly five and one-half) and the 
school month of four weeks. 



69 

In 1885 an act to facilitate the abolition of school districts was 
passed and the manner in which the town should assume posses- 
sion of the school property specified. Towns were authorized, 
in addition to the twenty per cent, allowed on school money 
raised by the town, to apportion to the smaller districts twenty 
per cent, of all school money received from the State, except that 
received in aid of free high schools. Schoolhouses of one story 
were exempted from the law requiring inner doors to open out- 
ward. Chapter 267, of 1885, entitled "An Act relating to scien- 
tific temperance instruction in public schools," provided that, in 
all schools supported by public money or under State control, 
instruction should be given "in physiology and hygiene, with 
special reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants 
and narcotics upon the human system." No certificate should 
be given any teacher who had not passed a satisfactory examina- 
tion in this subject. 

In 1887 a more stringent compulsory attendance and. truant 
law was enacted. This law required that children between the 
ages of eight and fifteen years should attend some public school 
for at least sixteen weeks annually unless equivalent means of 
education were otherwise furnished. Cities and towns were 
required to elect truant officers to enforce the law, under penalty 
for neglecting so to do, of from ten to fifty dollars. Boys who 
were habitual truants should be committed to the State Reform 
School. The "Labor law" enacted the same year, provided that 
no child under fifteen years of age should be employed in any 
factory, except during vacations of schools, unless he had 
attended school sixteen weeks during the preceding year. 
Chapter 100, of 1887, specified more distinctly what the course 
of study should be in free high schools and also provided the 
manner in which pupils from without the town might be admit- 
ted to these schools. The law allowing towns to apportion 
twenty-five per cent, of the school money received from the State 
to small districts was repealed at this session. 

In 1889, towns were authorized to contract with any academy 
or high school for the tuition of their scholars and to receive the 
same aid from the State as if they had established a free high 
school within the town. Towns were allowed, by vote on an 
article in the warrant calling any legal meeting, to employ the 
supervisor of schools to teach in the town and fix his compensa- 



70 

tion. In such case, a certificate should not be required. Music 
was added to the course of study in free high schools. Towns 
were allowed to raise money for the support of evening schools. 
The most important law in relation to schools passed in 1889 
was the free text-book law. Formerly it was optional with 
towns to provide books, but this law changed the word "may" 
to "shall," thus providing that "Towns shall provide school books 
for the use of pupils in the public schools, at the expense of said 
town, and all money raised and appropriated for that purpose 
shall be assessed like other moneys." School committees were 
required to make necessary regulations for the distribution and 
preservation of school books and appliances furnished by the 
town. 

In 1 89 1, it was enacted that all teachers in the public schools 
should devote not less than ten minutes of each week of the 
school term to teaching the principles of kindness to birds and 
animals. Also that "the elements of the natural sciences, espe- 
cially as applied to agriculture," should be taught in the schools. 

In 1893, the age of pupils allowed to attend the public schools 
was fixed between the ages of five and twenty-one years. The 
powers and duties of truant officers were more clearly defined. 
Scholars living at lighthouse stations, not included in any school 
district, were allowed to enter any school in the State without 
paying tuition. The most radical school legislation enacted at 
the session of 1893 was "An Act to abolish school districts and 
to provide for more efficient supervision of public schools." 
More than 1 50 towns in the State had voluntarily abolished the 
districts and adopted the town plan of management of schools 
and the advantages of this change were so apparent to the 
majority of the educators of the State that it seemed that the 
time had come when public opinion would sustain a law making 
this abolition compulsory and general throughout the State. 
Much discussion followed the introduction of the bill in the 
Legislature and a most exciting contest was waged against it. 
In the end, however, the friends of the town system prevailed 
and the act received a passage. A course of study was provided 
for the common schools and, in a large percentage of the rural 
schools in which it has been adopted the work has been 
conducted upon a more methodical plan and has been attended 
with gratifying results. The law of 1893 provided that "the 



71 

management of schools and the custody and care of all school 
property in every town shall devolve upon a superintending 
school committee consisting of three, five or seven members in 
each town, as the town may elect, who shall be chosen by ballot 
at the annual meeting, said committee shall have power to fill 
vacancies occurring during the interim between annual meetings 
and shall annually elect one of its members supervisor of schools, 
who shall be, ex officio, secretary of the committee, shall make 
the annual enumeration of scholars required by law and shall 
examine the scholars and inquire into the regulations and disci- 
pline thereof and the proficiency of the scholars, for which pur- 
pose he shall visit each school at least twice each term. He shall 
make all reports and returns relating to the schools of the town 
* * * and perform such other duties as said committee shall 
direct. Provided further, that in case the town so authorize, in 
lieu of the supervisor herein provided for, a superintendent may 
be elected who may or may not be a member of the committee. 
Said committee shall serve without pay, but the supervisor or 
superintendent by them elected, shall receive for his services such 
sum as the town shall annually vote therefor, which sum shall in 
no case be less than two dollars per day for every day of school 
service." 

In 1895 this law was amended so as to require the committee to 
"elect a superintendent of schools who may or may not be a 
member of the committee." His powers and duties are the same 
as in the law of 1893. The text-book law was amended so as 
to allow parents to provide their scholars with books for their 
separate and exclusive use if they wished so to do. It was also 
provided that whenever there should be in any unincorporated 
township two or more children of school age residing within 
three miles of a school in any adjoining town or plantation, the 
school officers in said adjoining town might enumerate and they 
should have the right to attend school in that town. The Treas- 
urer of State was directed to pay to the treasurer of the town 
where these scholars were enumerated and schooled, the interest 
on the reserved land fund of the unorganized township not to 
exceed three dollars for each child. 

In 1895, provision was made for the State examination and 
certification of teachers. Graded certificates should be given to 
those who passed a satisfactory examination, indicating the 



72 

grade of schools which the person named is qualified to teach. 
School officers must accept these certificates in lieu of the 
personal examination required by law. A sum not exceeding- 
five hundred dollars per year was allowed for the expenses of the 
examination. In 1895, Hon. N, A. Liice retired from the office 
of State Superintendent and W. W. Stetson of Auburn was 
appointed to succeed him. 

In 1897, several laws were passed in relation to schools. 
Chapter 2.2;j changed the title of State Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools to "State Superintendent of Public Schools."' 
Chapter 260 provided that towns should pay the expense of text- 
books, apparatus and appliances for the use of schools, including 
free high schools also repairs, insurance and improvements upon 
school grounds, out of money raised for that purpose and not 
from the school fund. Chapter 264 required all educational 
institutions receiving State aid to report annually to the State 
Superintendent of schools. Chapter 273 directed the State 
Superintendent to furnish the school officers of towns proper 
blank books for keeping itemized accounts of all receipts and 
expenditures, which books should remain the property of the 
State. Chapter 286 amended the law in regard to education of 
children in unorganized townships. It was made the duty of the 
State Superintendent to cause an enumeration of the children to 
be made out and returned to him and to provide for the schooling 
of the children, either by establishing a school in the township 
or by sending the children to schools in adjoining townships, or 
both, as he deemed expedient. If the interest on the reserved 
fund of the township was not sufficient to pay the expense of at 
least twenty weeks schooling each year, the State Treasurer was- 
directed to pay the same sum per scholar as was apportioned to 
scholars in organized towns. The inhabitants of the township 
so aided were required to pay to the State Treasurer twenty-five 
cents for each inhabitant before receiving any aid from the State. 
Chapter 289 required town superintendents to furnish such infor- 
mation as the State Superintendent should at any time require. 
Chapter 295 provided that any school that failed to maintain an 
average of eight pupils for the year should be discontinued, 
unless the town voted to continue it. The superintendent of 
schools in each town was directed to procure the conveyance of 
all pupils to and from the nearest school when the pupil resided 



7Z 

at such a distance as to render such conveyance necessary. As- 
the law did not state who should decide whether or not convey- 
ance was necessary, much friction was caused. Chapter 296 
allowed towns having not less than twenty-five or more than fifty 
schools to unite in the employment of a superintendent. When 
a union of towns had raised by taxation a sum not less than five 
hundred dollars for the support of a superintendent of schools, 
the State should pay to each town in the union, one-half the 
amount expended for superintendence up to a maximum of two 
hundred and fifty dollars to any one town or of seven hundred 
and fifty dollars to any union of towns. Persons employed as 
superintendents under this act must hold a State certificate and 
devote their entire time to superintendence. Chapter 299 made 
it necessary for candidates for admission to free high schools to 
be examined before entering, and amended the course of study 
by adding "the studies which are taught in secondary schools."' 
Chapter 321 gave school committees power to fill vacancies in the 
ofiice of truant officer. 

In 1899 the law in regard to conveyance of scholars was 
amended by a clause requiring conveyance to be furnished when 
"in the judgment of the superintending school committee" it was 
necessary. School officers were allowed to pay the board ot 
scholars near any school, instead of furnishing conveyance if 
they deemed it feasible to do so. The Governor and Council 
were authorized to withhold the State school fund from towns 
neglecting to raise and expend the school money required by 
law or to examine teachers, have instruction given in subjects 
prescribed by law, or to furnish suitable text-books. A most 
stringent truant and compulsory education law was passed in 
1899. This law required every child, between the ages of seven 
and fifteen, inclusive, to attend some public school during the 
time the school is in session unless excused by the school officers. 
All persons having children under their control were required 
to cause them to attend school as required by the law, under 
penalty of a fine of not exceeding twenty-five dollars for every 
ofifense or of imprisonment not to exceed thirty days. Any child 
who should be absent, without sufficient excuse, six or more 
times during any term should be deemed an habitual truant and 
if. after due admonition, the truancy was continued, the child, if 
a boy, might be committed to the State Reform School and if a 



74 

girl, to the State Industrial School for Girls, or to any truant 
school that may hereafter be established. Any person having 
control of a child who is an habitual truant and who shall in any 
way be responsible for his truancy, shall be subject to a fine not 
exceeding twenty dollars or to imprisonment not to exceed thirty 
days. Cities and towns were required to elect truant officers, 
under a penalty for neglect of from ten to fifty dollars. An act 
to provide for the schooling of children in unorganized town- 
ships was passed, all other acts for this purpose being thereby 
repealed. By this act, the State Superintendent was required to 
cause an enumeration of the children in all unorganized town- 
ships having two or more children of school age, and to provide 
for their schooling, either by establishing schools upon the town- 
ship or by sending them to schools in adjoining towns. No 
township can have the benefit of the act until the inhabitants shall 
pay to the State Treasurer a sum equal to twenty-five cents for 
each inhabitant. The State Superintendent should have the 
power to appoint agents for the several townships in which 
schools were established, whose duty it should be to enumerate 
the scholars, collect the per capita tax, employ the teacher and 
attend to all necessary details, for which work he should be paid 
not to exceed two dollars a day when actually employed and 
regular traveling expenses. When the interest on the reserve 
fund and the amount of the per capita tax of twenty-five cents 
was not enough for the expense of any school for at least twenty 
weeks in a year, the remainder of the expense should be paid 
from the fund appropriated by this act, which fund was an appro- 
priation of fifteen hundred dollars annually. 

The Free High School act was amended by making the school 
committee, with an equal number of the board of trustees of 
any academy receiving scholars by contract with the towns, a 
joint committee for the election of all teachers and for the 
arrangement of the courses of study when such academy has less 
than $10,000 endowment. 

Provision was made for the education of blind children at the 
Perkins Institute for the Blind at South Boston, Mass., and the 
provision of law for the schooling of deaf children was repealed. 



75 



FREE HIGH SCHOOLS. 

The free high school system of Maine was established to 
furnish instruction in secondary school studies, at public expense. 
Under the provisions of the law of 1873, any town raising and 
expending funds for the maintenance of a school or schools 
giving free instruction in academic studies to the children founa 
competent therefor would be reimbursed for the expenditure so 
made to the extent of one-half the amount paid for teachers' 
wages and board, provided that no town should be paid a sum 
exceeding S500.00. 

When towns failed to make provision for the support of high 
schools, the districts might maintain such schools, and receive 
State aid. When supported by towns, they were under the sole 
control of the town's school committee. When supported by 
districts, they were under the joint control of a board consisting 
of the town's school committee and the agent, or agents, of the 
districts maintaining them. 

In 1875, such schools were organized in 157 of the 421 towns. 
In 1879. the Legislature passed an act suspending for one year, 
the operation of the law under which these schools were main- 
tained. In 1880, the Legislature provided that instruction in the 
ancient and modern languages should not be given in any school 
which was aided by the State, except in such schools as formed 
a part of a graded system. The maximum amount of State aid 
annually payable, was in 1880, reduced to $250. Penalties were 
also provided for any attempt to defraud the State under this 
law. Subsequent amendments were made in 1887, 1889, 1893, 
and 1897, providing that towns may contract for the free tui- 
tion of pupils in the high schools of other towns, or in academies, 
allowing the organization of free high school precincts for the 
purpose of maintaining schools under the same provisions as 
applied to school districts before their abolition, and making 
more strict the examination of candidates for admission to these 
schools and defining the course of study to be pursued in them. 
This course of study included ancient and modern languages, 
when prescribed by the superintending school committee. Since 
1880 the growth of the system has been such that the number of 
towns in which free high schools are maintained increased from 
157 in 1875 to 256 in 1898. 



76 

The law raising the grade and requiring all applicants for 
admission to free high schools to be examined had the effect 
to discontinue a number of schools which were high schools in 
name only, so that the number in 1899 was reduced to 220 and 
in 1900 to 214. While the number of free high schools was 
thus reduced, their rank as secondary schools was much advanced 
and in many of them pupils are now fitted for college. 

NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

In i860, normal departments were established by the Legisla- 
ture in eighteen academies, but the experiment not proving 
satisfactory they were discontinued in 1862. 

In 1863, the Western State Normal school was located at 
Farmington and the first session opened on the 24th of August, 
1864. During this term the number of students enrolled reached 
fifty-nine, from thirteen of the sixteen counties of the State. 
The school was placed under the joint control of the Governor 
and Council and the State Superintendent of schools. In 187J 
the control was transferred to a board of trustees, of which the 
Governor and State Superintendent were, ex officio, members. 
Upon the establishment of the school the trustees of Farmington 
Academy transferred to the State in money, building and lot, 
property to the amount of $12,000. Of this $4,900 was in money, 
which sum with several thousand dollars furnished by the State, 
was expended in the erection of the present buildings. In 1867, 
the sum of $4,500 was appropriated for the payment of money 
expended by the trustees, thus giving the State full ownership 
of the property. In 1869, ^" appropriation of $2,500 was made 
for the completion of the building. The appropriation was 
made from a fund arising from the sale of lands set apart for 
the normal schools. In 1870, the sum of $1,000 was expended 
on the buildings and a steam-heating apparatus was added at a 
cost of $2,000. In 1873, the sum of $3,500 was appropriated 
for apparatus and library and cases for the same, for repairing 
the roof and fencing the grounds. In 1875, there was an 
expenditure of $400 for chandeliers and apparatus, and in 1876, 
an unexpended balance of the normal school fund, amounting to 
$1,018, was appropriated for additional heating apparatus, a 
transit, a spectroscope and for additions to the library. Ambrose 
P. Kelsey, the first principal of the school, resigned in 1865 and 



77 

was succeeded by George W. Gage who resigned in 1868. Mr. 
Gage was succeeded by Charles C. Rounds and he in 1883, by 
George C. Purington, the present principal. The original school 
building has given place to an entirely new and much larger 
structure, thoroughly modern in arrangement, furnishings, venti- 
lation and sewerage, and of a most attractive style of archi- 
tecture. 

EASTERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, CASTINE, ME. 

This institution was opened very modestly and quietly on the 
7th of September, 1867, with but thirteen pupils. Mr. G. T. 
Fletcher was its first principal. The town of Castine had mani- 
fested its interest in the establishment of the school by the loan 
of an excellent building, completely furnished, for the use of 
the school for a period of five years. At the close of the school 
year, in May, 1868, public examination exercises were held. 
These exercises were so satisfactory as to attract public atten- 
tion, and the second school opened in August, 1868, with 51 
pupils in attendance. At the close of the school year in May, 
1869, the attendance had reached 81 and the first class of eight 
pupils was graduated. The number of pupils continued to 
increase and at the close of the fourth year, 140 pupils were in 
attendance. It now became evident that a building adequate 
to the needs of the school must be supplied at once. The town 
of Castine gave a lot of land and the Legislature appropriated 
$20,000 for the erection of a school building, which was begun in 
the summer of 1872 and completed in January, 1873, and dedi- 
cated with appropriate exercises on May 21st of that year. An 
appropriation of $5,000 was afterwards made for furniture, 
library, apparatus, and improvements, and the new school found 
itself comfortably housed and equipped. The building has since 
been enlarged by an extension of the main building to the rear, 
furnishing space for a large model schoolroom in the lower 
story and for library, teachers'- rooms and large classroom in the 
upper portion of the addition. The grounds have been graded 
and rendered attractive by laying out walks and planting shade 
trees. Adequate systems of sewerage, heating and ventilation 
have been provided. Extensive repairs and improvements have 
also been made in the main assembly room and classrooms, 
including steel ceilings, tinted walls, slate blackboards, etc. Mr. 



78 

Fletcher continued as principal until 1879, when he was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. Roliston Woodbury who held the position until 
his death, in 1888. Mr. Albert F. Richardson was then 
appointed and has continued to hold the position until the 
present time. 

GORHAM NORMAL SCHOOL. 

In 1878, the Legislature made provision for establishing a 
third normal school at Gorham. The town and citizens of 
Gorham presented the State with a school building, furnished 
and ready for occupancy, and the trustees of Gorham Seminary 
gave a dormitory, with its furnishings and library. The value 
of these buildings, including land, was fully $40,000. The first 
school was opened January 29, 1879, with a class of 85 pupils, 
45 of whom were awarded diplomas at the end of the year. 
Since that time the originally extensive and finely located 
grounds have been graded and adorned with shrubbery and trees, 
a system of sewerage has been constructed and the largest and 
best arranged and furnished dormitory in New England has been 
erected to supply the place of the one destroyed by fire in 1894. 
Repairs and improvements have been made in the assembly and 
classrooms, including steel ceilings, slate blackboards, physical 
apparatus, etc. The lot on which the dormitory is built was pre- 
sented to the State by Mr. Dana Estes of Boston, of the firm of 
Lauriat & Estes, and is one of the finest sites in the village. 
Hon. W. J. Corthell has been the principal of this institution 
since its establishment. 

MADAWASKA TRAINING SCHOOL. 

In 1878, the Legislature made provision for the establishment 
of a training school for teachers among the French speaking 
people of northeastern Maine. These residents upon the banks 
of the upper St. John were, for a large part, descendants of the 
original Acadians, who, escaping from Grand Pre at the time of 
the cruel dispersion of that colony by the English, in 1755, had 
made their way up this magnificent river and made homes for 
themselves on the broad and fertile intervales along its banks. 
Their numbers had from time to time been increased by emi- 
grants from Canada and there grew up a large French popu- 
lation in this frontier portion of the State, who retained the 
language, manners, customs and religion of their ancestors. 



The trustees of the State Normal Schools were authorized 
"to establish and maintain for a term of not less than six months 
in each year, two schools in the Madawaska territory, so called, 
for the purpose of training persons to teach in the common 
schools of said territory." The first half year was taught at 
Fort Kent and the second term at Van Buren. The same teach- 
ers were in charge of both schools. At Fort Kent, the school 
was held in the village school building ; at Van Buren, in a par- 
tially finished building furnished with rough seats and study 
tables. At the former place the attendance was forty-nine and 
at the latter thirty-four. Such were the humble beginnings of 
an institution whose work and influence were destined greatly 
to exceed the fondest hopes of those who were instrumental in 
founding it. In 1887, the school, though still called the Mada- 
waska Training School, was permanently located at Fort Kent, 
where a two-story school building and a two-story dormitory 
have been erected at a cost of $20,500. The school building con- 
tains, on the first floor, a main schoolroom, 40x50 feet, finishet: 
in native spruce, with tinted walls, and provided with modern 
furniture. Connected with this room are three commodious* 
recitation rooms. On the second floor is a hall of the same 
dimensions as the main schoolroom, with seating capacity for 
300 persons. It has a stage 18x26 feet, connecting with 
two convenient dressing-rooms. In the rear of the hall is an 
unfinished room which, it is hoped, will eventually be used for 
a manual training department. The building is well lighted, 
heated and ventilated. The dormitory will accommodate 100 
students. It is so managed that pupils may board themselves 
or be boarded at a minimum cost. Both buildings are heated by 
furnaces and are supplied with pure water on each floor and 
have also a complete system of sewerage, connecting with bath- 
rooms, laundries, lavatories, water-closets and kitchen. Mr. 
Vetal Cyr was principal of the Madawaska Training School 
from its establishment until his death in September, 1897, since 
which time Miss Mary P. Nowland has had charge of the school. 

The course of instruction in the normal schools, as originally 
established, covered two years, with the exception of the school 
at Gorham, which at first had a course of one year, but, at the 
end of the first year, the course in this school was changed to 
the plan adopted by the other schools. In 1881, the trustees were 



8o 

authorized to provide for a three year course and an additional 
year of advanced study was added to the course at Farmington. 
Comparatively few pupils took advantage of this course. In 
1895, the Legislature authorized the trustees to extend the course 
of study over three or four years and, in accordance with the 
authority so conferred, there was an advanced course of one year 
in all the schools. 

Beginning with the school year 1898-9, the standard of admis- 
sion to the schools was raised to include examinations in simple 
equations in algebra, physiology and hygiene, and the common 
school branches. In 1899, the trustees provided for the admis- 
sion, without examination, of persons holding State certificates, 
graduates of colleges and graduates of secondary schools having 
a four years' course which fit students for Maine colleges. They 
further made provision that candidates for admission might 
take their examinations at the times and places appointed for the 
examination of candidates for State certificates. 

teachers' institutes and summer schools. 

There are certain general agencies which belong to every well 
organized public school system. Teachers' institutes and sum- 
mer schools come under this classification. The work of the 
former is more general and popular in character and purpose 
than that of the latter. The summer school is more systematic 
in the order of its work, because it is of longer duration than the 
institute. It gives instruction in principles and methods of 
teaching, and in the more general subjects of instruction found 
in the schools, such as music, drawing, nature study, physical 
culture, English and the common school branches. The sessions 
usually extend through two weeks of the summer vacation. 
When this movement becomes a permanent agency in the school 
system, the instruction can be so planned as to require a series 
of annual sessions to complete it. It then may be made to cor- 
relate with the work of the normal schools in such a manner as 
to give those who have taken a complete course special privileges 
in entering the normal schools. 

When the Legislature of 1875 assembled, there was on the 
statute books a law enabling the State Superintendent of schools 
to hold in each county one or more teachers' institutes of five 



8i 

days each, for which purpose the sum of $4,000 was annually 
appropriated. This law had been in effect six years. During 
the first three years of its operation a system of County super- 
vision existed in Maine, the County Supervisors acting as local 
agents of the State Superintendent and assisting in the work of 
organizing and conducting these meetings. In 1872, the law 
providing for county supervision was repealed, and in 1875 the 
law establishing institutes shared the same fate. 

From 1875 to 1881, no provision was made by which the State 
Superintendent could come in professional contact with the 
teachers. In 1877, the State Superintendent called to his assist- 
ance the principals of the two normal schools, and with their aid 
held a series of one-day conventions in all the counties of the 
State. The interest manifested in these meetings gave evidence 
of the need that something be done in this direction. In some 
coimties the teachers organized county associations, but they 
were of short life and not especially efficient. 

In 1 88 1, the Legislature appropriated $800 to enable the State 
Superintendent to hold for two days each, one or more meetings 
or conventions in each county. During the fall of 1881, twenty- 
one such meetings were held, and were attended by about 1,200 
teachers and school officials. Teachers' associations were organ- 
ized in connection with these meetings, and with few exceptions 
they are in existence at the present time. 

In 1885, after four years of experimental work, these county 
associations were made a permanent part of the State educa- 
tional machinery by an act of the Legislature providing for their 
maintenance by the State and management by the State Super- 
intendent of schools. Under this act teachers were authorized 
to close their schools for two days in each year for the purpose 
of attending these meetings, without forfeiture of wages. The 
law has been made more efficient by increasing the amount annu- 
ally appropriated for the support of these associations. The 
attendance has constantly grown and public interest in them has 
come to be such that the largest assembly rooms are required to 
accommodate the attendance at most of the sessions. 

The teachers' summer school in Maine had its origin in the 

work of the county associations. In 1891, the Piscataquis 

County Association, at its annual meeting, took steps looking 

toward holding its next annual meeting in the summer instead 

6 



82 



of the fall, and for a period of one week instead of two days. 
Specialists were secured to give instruction in vocal music, draw- 
ing, physical culture, pedagogy, arithmetic, history and geog- 
raphy. The school was in session at Foxcroft for one week. 
More than a hundred teachers were enrolled, and the wisdom of 
the movement was fully vindicated. The work of this school 
was so satisfactory that before its close, arrangements were made 
foi holding, during the ensuing summer, another session at the 
same place and with the same instructors. The second meeting 
was even more successful than the first, and for the following 
year, arrangemnts were made for a term to extend through two 
weeks. In 1894, two other -schools of one week each, were held, 
the first being at the Chautauqua Campground at Fryeburg, and 
the other at the Methodist Campground at Northport. The 
attendance at Foxcroft for the third year aggregated nearly 200. 
The work it did and the favor it received, resulting in making an 
earnest effort to secure legislative provision for establishing 
these schools at different localities throughout the State. 

The Legislature of 1895 passed a resolve giving the State sup- 
erintendent authority to establish and maintain annually not less 
than three summer schools, and made an appropriation for their 
support in the years 1895 ^"'^^ 1896. Like appropriations for 
the same purpose were made by the legislatures of 1897 and 1899. 
From the beginning the work has been systematic and construc- 
tive, embracing such instruction as is fitted to qualify teachers 
to direct rightly the mental, physical and moral education of their 
pupils. The course extends through four annual sessions of two 
weeks each. To hold teachers to continuous attendance, certifi- 
cates are granted to all who attend two-thirds of any session. To 
teachers attending four annual sessions, diplomas are awarded. 
The schools are not permanently located, but are established at 
places where it is found that the largest number are disposed to 
avail themselves of their privileges. But three sessions have as 
yet been held at any given point with the exception of Foxcroft. 
The change of the location after three years has for its purpose 
the bringing of teachers into wider relations with their fellows 
than they would naturally be brought into, otherwise. It has 
also the purpose to make these schools a permanent part of our 
public school system, and it is hoped that their work can be so 
arranged as to be brought into close relation both with the county 



83 

institute and the normal schools. These three agencies have 
already assumed important places in our system, the two former 
being feeders for the latter. The young teacher often receives 
at the institute or summer school the impulse which carries her 
into our higher institutions of learning. Even teachers of 
extended experience have been stimulated to fit themselves better 
for their work, because of attendance upon some of these meet- 
ings. During the past five years summer schools have been held 
in Foxcroft, Northport, Fryeburg, Orono, Newcastle, Machias, 
Saco, Turner, Houlton, Pittsfield, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Norway, 
Waterville, Presque Isle and Fort Kent. The attendance has 
been quite as large as could profitably be handled, and has aver- 
aged about one thousand teachers each year. 

ACADEMIES. 

The history of the New England academy goes back over a 
period of 136 years. The old Boston Latin school, founded by 
Rftv. John Cotton in 1635, ^s the first of the secondary schools 
established in New England. Other schools, more or less pre- 
tentious, had an existence in the 17th century but it was not until 
the century following that the academy proper came into exist- 
ence. In 1 76 1, Governor Dummer bequeathed his mansion and 
330 acres of land in Byfield, Mass., to found an academy, and 
Dummer academy was opened in 1763, under the noted Master 
Moody. In 1780, Samuel Phillips founded the famous Phillips 
Andover Academy and in 1781, his uncle, John Phillips, founded 
the equally famous Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hamp- 
shire. In 1 791, two academies were founded in what is now the 
State of Maine, one at Hallowell and the other at Berwick. 
In 1792, Fryeburg Academy and Washington Academy at East 
Machias were founded and Portland Academy followed in 
1794. Of these five earliest of Maine academies, three, viz: 
Berwick, Fryeburg and Washington, are still in existence, after 
an honorable career of more than a century. Twenty-five 
academies had been incorporated in Maine previous to the sep- 
aration from Massachusetts and had received as an endowment 
from the old Commonwealth 253,980 acres of wild land. 
Between 1820 and 1851, forty-four academies were chartered, 
receiving from the State 332,980 acres of land and $20,000 in 



84 



money for their support. Up to 1876, the chartered academies 
had received from the State $230,000 and from individuals, 
$135,000. 

The act estabhshing free high schools, passed in 1873, was a 
death blow to all but the stronger of the old academies. Many 
of chem transferred their buildings and funds to the towns in 
which they were located and became free high schools. In 1891, 
the Legislature granted fourteen academies an annual appropri- 
ation of $500 each for ten years, tv.'o $800 for ten years, and one 
$300 for ten years. The Legislature of 1899 made appropria- 
tions for quite a large number of academies, a list of which may 
be found elsewhere in this report. The following table from the 
"History of Education" in the hands of the U. S. Bureau of Edu- 
cation, gives the incorporated academies of Maine in the order of 
incorporation. Academies not in operation are indicated by an 
asterisk (*) 



INCORPORATED ACADEMIES OF MAINE. 



Name, 
♦nallowell Academy. 



Berwick Academy 

Fryeburg Academy 

Wasliiiigton Academy. 
♦Portland Academy. .. 

Lincoln Academy 

*Gorliam Academy — 



Hampden .Academy.. . 

Blueliill Academy 

Hebron Academy 

*Bath Academy 

*FarminKton Academy 
*Bloomfield Academy.. 

*Wai'ren Academy 

♦Belfast Academy 

Bri<lgton Academy 

*Batb Female Academy 
Wiscassct Academy 

M on month A en demy — 
Limerick Academy . ... 
Noi-ili Yarmoulli Acad. 

Tliornton Academy 

*Yonnf< Ladies' Acad — 
*Cony Female Academy 

*niiina Academy 

Maine Wesleyan Spmin 

*<iardiner Lyceum 

♦Brunswick Academy.. 



Date of 

Location. Incorpoia 

.Hallowell 1791 

.South Berwick... 17111 
Fryeburg 1792 

.Fast Machias 1792 

.Portland 1794 

Newcastle I>^01 

.Gorham 18(W 

. Hampden l.-OM 

Blnehill lsii3 

Hebron IMI4 

Bath 1W1.5 

. Farmington \!^(i' 

.Skowhegan .... 1^(17 

.Warren I1-O8 

Belfast ISOS 

.Bridgtcm 1808 

.Bath 1808 

■ Wiscasset 1.^08 

.Monmouth 18i'8 

I^imei ick I80S 

. Yarmouili l.'^l I 

Siico 18U 

. Bnngor 1M8 

..Augusta .. 181>; 

China . jsl>: 

.Kent's Hill 1821 

Gardiner 182-' 

. Brunswick I>22 



lion. Remarks. 

Meiged in Hallowell Classical and 
Scientific Academy. 



Maine Female Seminary in 18.50, 
now Normal School. 



Now High School. 
Ni>w Normal "ichool. 
Now High .school. 

Conveyed to the city in 18.52. 

Extinct prior to 1851. 
Kxtinct prior lo 1851. Revived in 
1899. 



Now Yarmouth Academy. 

Formerly Shco Academv. 

Fxtinct in 1851, 

N'i'W Cony High school. 

' onvHved to ilistrict in 1887. 



I'X' ioct in 1851. 



85 



Date of 
Incorporation. 



Name. Location. 

Foxcroft Academy Foxcroft Iis2.3 

Anson Academy North Anson 18-23 

*Oxford Female Acad ..Paris 1827 

♦Dearborn Academy Buxton 1828 

*C berry fiekl Academy. .Cherry tield 1829 

*Alfred Academy Alfred 1829 

Westbrook Seminary ...Westbrook 18.31 

*Titcomb Academy . ...N. Belgrade 1831 

*Eastport Academy . .. Eaatport 1832 

*St. Albans Academy ..Hartland 1832 

Parsonsfleld Seminary. .N. Parsonsfleld.. . 18.33 

*Lee Meadows Acad ... Weld 1833 

*Union Academy Kennebunk 1834 

*Falmoutli Academy Falmouth 1834 

*Sanford Academy Sanford 1834 

[Auburn 
*Lewiston Kails Acad... Danville, now 1834 



Remarks. 



Never in operation. 
Organization not permanent. 



Never organized. 

Property distributed. 

Extinct prior to 1851. 

School not established. Now High 

School. 
In 1866, Edward Little Institute 

Since 1873, High School. 



Now Somerset Academy. 
Exti .ct prior to 1851. 



*Vassalborough Acad. .. Vassalborough ..1835 

*Waterville Liberal In.. Waterville 1835 

Gould's Academy . ... Bethel 1836 

Freedom Academy Freedom 1836 

* Athens Academy . Athens 1836 

♦Livingston Academy ..Richmond 1836 

Waldoboro Academy . . .VValdoboro 1836 

♦Calais Academy Calais 1836 

♦Norridgewock Female 

Academy Norridgewock ...1836 

Charleston Acadetny Charleston 1837 Now Higgins Classical Institute. 

♦Clinton Academy Benton 1839 

*Eliot Academy Eliot 1840 

Waterville Academy — Waterville 1842 Now Coburn Classical Institute. 

Litchfield Academy Litchfield 1844 

.♦Dennysville Academy. .Dennysville 1845 

♦Monroe Academy Monroe 1845 

♦Brunswick Seminary ..Brunswick 1845 Existence nominal in 1851. 

♦Brewer Academy Brewer 1845 

♦Newport Academy Newport 1845 

♦St. George Academy ...St. George 1845 

Lee Normal Academy .. Lee 1845 

♦Thomaston Academy.. Thomaston 1845 Sold to city, 1867. 

Somerset Academy Athens 1846 

Mattanawcook Acad.. .. Lincoln 1846 

East Corinth Academy. .East Corinth 1846 

Houlton Academy Houlton 1847 Now Ricker Classical Institute. 

Patten Academy Patten 1847 

Monson Academy Monson 1847 

♦Litclifleld Liberal In. .. Litchfield 1847 

♦Union Academy Oldtown 1848 

Limington Academy Limington 1848 

•Standlsh Academy Standish 1848 

Bucksport Seminary... Bucksport 1849 



♦Norway Liberal In Norway 1849 

♦Oxford Normal In South Paris 1849 

♦East Pittston Academy. East Pittston 1850 

Lebanon Academy — Lebanon 1850 

♦Yarmouth Institute Yarmouth 1851 



In 1850 East 
Seminary. 



Maine Conference 



86 



Date of 
Name. Location. Incorporation. Remarks. 

Corinna Union AcademyCorinna 1851 

*Towle's Academy VVinthrop 1852 

Oak Grove Seminary ... Vassalborongli ..1854 New cliarter 1857. 

Maine State Seminary ..Lewiston Ih55 Now Bates College. 

*Presque Isle Academy. Presque Isle 1858 Property sold 1883. 

*We9t Gardiner Acad... West Gai diner... 1859 

*Harpswell Academy. . . Ilarpswell 1859 

Greeley Institute Cumberland 1859 

♦Richmond Academy .. .Riclimond 1861 Now Higli Scliool. 

Paris Hill Academy Paris- .' 1861 

ftlaine Central Institute. Pittsfield 1866 

Wilton Academy Wilton 1866 

*Augusta Academy Augusta 1867 

*Passadumkeag Acad... Passadumkeag ..1867 Not organized. 
*Hallowell Classical and 

Scientific Academy ...Hallowell 187"2 

*St. Dennis Academy. ..Whitefleld 1872 Not in operation. 

*Dixfleld Academy Dixtield 1883 Not organized. 

Van Buren College Van Buren 1887 Catholic School. 

George Stevens Acad . . Bluehill 1891 

Higgins Classical In Charleston 1891 

Bridge Academy Dresden 1891 

The old academies were a powerful agency in the intellectual, 
moral and religious life of the State. A few, located in the 
midst of thriving agricultural communities, like Washington 
Academy, Lincoln Academy, Gould Academy, Bridgton 
Academy, Fryeburg Academy, Yarmouth Academy and Wilton 
Academy, have been able by the aid of small endowments, to 
keep alive and do good work. Thornton Academy at Saco and 
Berwick Academy have fine buildings and generous endowm'ents. 
Nearly all the other leading academies receive their chief sup- 
port from their denominational connections. Coburn Classical 
Institute, at Waterville, Hebron Academy, Ricker Classical 
Institute, at Houlton, and Higgins Classical Institute at Charles- 
ton are all supported by the Baptist denomination and are feeders 
for Colby College. The Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's 
Hill and the East Maine Conference Seminary, formerly the 
Bucksport Seminary, are Methodist institutions. The Maine 
Central Institute, at Pittsfield, is supported by Free Baptists; 
Westbrook Seminary by Universalists, and Oak Grove Seminary 
by the Friends. 

The Legislature of 1901 passed the following law : 

An Act relating to Academies, Seminaries and Institutes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
Legislature assembled, as follows : 



8; 



I. Whenever it shall be made to appear to the Governor and 
Council, from returns made as herein provided, that any incor- 
porated academy, seminary or institute in the State is prepared 
to give instruction equivalent to that required by law to be given 
in free high schools, that the pupils attending the said academy, 
seminary or institute are qualified to receive such instruction, and 
that the teachers in the said academy, seminary or institute have 
the qualifications fitting them to give instruction in secondary 
school studies, such academy, seminary or institute shall be 
entitled to receive annually from the State a sum not exceeding 
five hundred dollars in case it maintains an English secondary 
school course of study as prescribed by the educational depart- 
ment of the State, and has an average attendance from towns and 
cities other than the municipality or jurisdiction in which said 
academy, seminary or institute is located of at least ten students, 
or a sum not exceeding seven hundred and fifty dollars in case 
it maintains in addition to an English course, a college prepara- 
tory course, and has an average attendance from towns and cities 
other than the municipality or jurisdiction in which said acad- 
emy, seminary or institute is located of at least twenty students, 
or a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars in case it maintains 
an English course, a college preparatory course and a training 
course for teachers, and has an average attendance from towns 
and cities other than the municipality or jurisdiction in which 
said academy, seminary or institute is located of at least forty 
students ; provided, the courses of study herein named shall be 
subject to the approval of the Educational Department of the 
State : and provided, that the amount paid by the State to 
any academy, seminary or institute under this act shall be 
expended by the said academy, seminary or institute for instruc- 
tion during the year for which payment is made, and shall not 
exceed the total income of the said academy, seminary or insti- 
tute from all other sources ; and provided further, that in addition 
to the amount received from the State, a sum equal thereto shall 
be expended for instruction and maintenance of the academy, 
seminary or institute during said year; and provided further, 
that every academy, seminary or institute receiving money from 
the State under this act shall provide instruction as contemplated 
by this act for not less than thirty weeks in each year ; and pro- 



88 

videcl further, that no academy, seminary or institute shall be 
credited with maintaining a course or study under this act vniless 
the said academy, seminary or institute shall have an average of 
not less than twelve students in said course. 

II. The Treasurer of State is hereby authorized and directed 
to pay annually to the legal representatives of such academies, 
seminaries or institutes as shall be entitled to receive money from 
the State under this act, at the times and in the manner provided 
by law for the payment of money in aid of free high schools, the 
amounts to which they shall be 'severally entitled under this act ; 
provided, that no payment shall be made to any academy, semm- 
ary or institute until the State Educational Department shall 
have certified to the Treasurer of State all the facts which by 
this act are made necessary to entitle an academy, seminary or 
institute to receive money from the State under this act. 

III. Any town or precinct providing free tuition for its high 
school scholars in any academy, seminary or institute, shall 
receive State aid to the amount of one-half the sum expended for 
such instruction, provided, no town shall receive to exceed two 
hundred and fifty dollars in any given year; and provided 
further, that no town shall receive State aid under this act if a 
free high school of standard grade is maintained in said town. 

IV. No academy, seminary or institute shall receive State 
aid under this act unless incorporated prior to the date of 
approval of said act. 

V. No academy, seminary or institute shall receive State aid 
under this act unless the average attendance in said academy, 
seminary or institute for the year preceding shall exceed thirty 
students, and no academy, seminary or institute shall receive to 
exceed five hundred dollars unless the average attendance in said 
academy, seminary or institute for the year preceding shall 
exceed sixty students. 

VI. No academy, seminary or institute shall receive State 
aid under this act if said academy, seminary or institute has an 
annual income from invested funds exceeding sixteen hundred 
dollars, and no academy, seminary or institute shall receive State 
aid to exceed five hundred dollars in any given year provided the 
said academy, seminary or institute has an annual income from 
invested funds exceeding one thousand dollars. 



89 

VII. The officers and teachers of every academy, seminary or 
institute receiving money from the State under this act shall 
annually on or before the first day of January in each year render 
to the Educational Department an itemized account of all the 
moneys received and expended during the preceding year and 
shall make such further report to the State Educational Depart- 
ment as may from time to time be required. 

Approved February 26, igoi. 

This law is one of the most important acts in relation to educa- 
tion ever passed by a Maine Legislature. It does away with all 
special legislation in regard to aid to academies and places these 
institutions, as far as the amount each shall receive from the 
State is concerned, upon the same basis as the Free High 
Schools. 

The aid each shall receive from the State (if any) is deter- 
mined by the amount and character of the work done, as evinced 
by the sworn return made by the officers of the institution to the 
State Superintendent of Public Schools and not by the influence 
any academy may be able to bring to bear upon the Legislature. 

COLLEGES. 

Bowdoin College. More than a century and a half had passed 
since the opening of Harvard College, when, in response to a 
wide spread desire of the inhabitants of the District of Maine, 
a new college was established at Brunswick, in the county of 
Cumberland. Brunswick is one of the oldest towns in the dis- 
tiict, having been settled in 1628, when it was known as Pejep- 
scot, and incorporated in 1738 as the eleventh town in the old 
Commonwealth. Cumberland, the county in which Brunswick 
is situated, originally embraced all of the present counties of 
Androscoggin and Franklin and portions of Oxford, Kennebec 
and Somerset, and was incorporated as a county in 1760, thirty- 
four years previous to the founding of the new college. 

The charter for the college was signed by Governor General 
Adams on January 24, 1794. The college received its name 
from James Bowdoin, great-grandson of Pierre Bauduoin, a 
French Protestant who fled from religious persecution in his 
native land and settled in Falmouth, in the Province of Maine. 
His oldest son, named James, was a successful merchant and 
amassed a large fortune in trade. His son, also named James 



90 

Bowdoin, was born in Boston and was elected Governor of 
Massachusetts. He was deeply interested in science and litera- 
ture and was a generous patron of education. He died in 1790 
and it was soon after decided to give his name to the proposed 
college. The earliest patron of the college was the Hon. James 
Bowdoin, the third of the name, son of Governor Bowdoin and 
United States minister-plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain 
under the administration of President Jefferson. 

In 1794, the year in which the new college was chartered, he 
gave it $1,000 in cash and 1,000 acres of land in Bowdoinham, 
valued at $3,000. In 1795, he made it a further gift of $3,000 
and before his death in 181 1 transferred to its trustees a tract 
of land in the town of Lisbon, containing 6,000 acres. At his 
death he left to the college a valuable library of 2,000 volumes 
and as many pamphlets, a collection of minerals, a fine gallery 
of 70 paintings and 142 drawings. 

The college was duly opened for work in September, 1802, 
with the inauguration of Rev. Joseph McKeen as president and 
John Abbott, a graduate of Harvard, as professor of ancient lan- 
guages. His first class consisted of eight students. In 1805 
the department of mathematics and natural philosophy was 
established, with Parker Cleaveland in charge. Prof. Cleave- 
land's "Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology" was 
a work of much value and excellence and reflected great honor 
upon himself and the college. In 1806, seven of the eight 
students who entered at the opening of the college completed 
their course and received diplomas. This was the last, as well 
as the first commencement at which President McKeen presided. 
He died in 1807, after a painful illness extending through a 
number of years. President McKeen was a man of strong 
character and exceptional executive ability, and his brief admin- 
istration was of great value in starting the college on its career 
of usefulness. He was succeeded by Rev. Jesse Appleton, dur- 
ing whose administration the religious life of the students was 
quickened, the material equipment of the college was enlarged 
and the reputation of the institution for "good rnorals and sound 
scholarship" established. President Appleton was, in 1819, suc- 
ceeded by Rev. William Allen, who held the position until 1839. 
Jn 1820, the Medical School of Maine was chartered by the 



legislature and placed under the control of the college. Pro- 
fessor Cleaveland was appointed professor of chemistry and 
materia medica and secretary of the medical faculty. In 1824, 
Alpheus S. Packard was appointed professor of ancient lan- 
guages and classical literature and filled this position with 
eminent ability for forty-one years. He retained his connection 
with the college until his death in 1883, at which time he was 
acting president. The term of service of President Allen was 
a period of strife and litigation. It was noted also for the many 
strong men who during that time joined the faculty of the college 
and who for many years impressed the institution most power- 
fully and beneficially with their marked and vigorous person- 
alities. Among them, besides Professors Packard and Cleave- 
land, were Samuel P. Newman, Thomas C. Upham and WilHam 
Smyth, whose connection with the college averaged forty-five 
years. In 1825, a professorship of modern languages was estab- 
lished and Henry W. Longfellow, a member of the famous class 
of that year, was called to this chair. After traveling and study- 
ing abroad, he entered upon his duties in 1829, and, during his 
incumbency, Bowdoin was the first of New England colleges to 
give prominence to the study of modern languages. In 1839, 
Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., became president and by his courtly 
grace, refined taste and rare culture, lifted the little college into 
the larger atmosphere of the scholarly world and impressed nigh 
standards of gentlemanly bearing upon the students. He was 
succeeded, in 1866, by Rev. Samuel Harris, who was a man of 
pre-eminent gifts as an educator, and who at once placed the 
curriculum of the college upon a broad and sound basis with 
decidedly progressive tendencies. In 1871, Gen. Joshua L. 
Chamberlain, who had been a brilliant and faithful officer during 
the war of the rebellion and for four years Governor of Maine, 
was called to the presidency of the college. He continued the 
work inaugurated by President Harris and introduced a scientific 
department which for a decade gave thorough instruction in 
applied science, but was discontinued on account of lack of funds 
to maintain two courses so distinct in aim and method. In 1883, 
Gen. Chamberlain resigned and the venerable Professor Packard, 
then in his eighty-fourth year, acted in his stead until his death. 
In 1885, Rev. William DeWitt Hyde was called to the presi- 



92 

dential chair, which he still occupies. During- his administration 
the elective system has been greatly extended, facilities for 
thorough labratory work have been given to the college, the 
library has been made more accessible and useful and systematic 
physical training has been established. 

Bowdoin has twelve buildings, chief among which are the 
Chapel, a monument to the memory of President Woods ; 
Memorial Hall with its tablets inscribed with the names of those 
who served their country in the war of the rebellion ; the Walker 
Art building, erected by the Misses Walker of Waltham, Mass., 
as a memorial of their uncle, Theophilus Wheeler Walker of 
Boston, and the Mary F. S. Searles Scientific Laboratory, 
erected by Edward F. Searles in memory of his wife. 

Upon the roll of graduates of Bowdoin are many men who 
have acquired fame in all the varied walks of life. 

COLBY COLLEGE. 

The second college established in the State was opened 
at Waterville in 1818. In 1810, the Baptist association 
of Maine proposed "to establish an institution in the Dis- 
trict of Maine for the purpose of promoting literary and theo- 
logical knowledge" and a committee was appointed to petition 
the General Court for a charter. In 18 13, an act was approved 
by the Governor of Massachusetts incorporating the "Maine Lit- 
erary and Theological Institution." Section i of the act estab- 
lishing the institution specified that it should "be erected and 
established in the District of Maine, in the township hereafter 
mentioned." This township was "No. 3" on the west side of the 
Penobscot river, which now includes the towns of Alton and 
Argyle. It at once became evident that it was unwise if not 
absurd to locate a college in a region destitute of common 
schools, and in fact almost a wilderness. A petition was pre- 
sented to the legislature of Massachusetts to authorize a more 
central location, and, on June 12, 181 5, an additional act was 
passed which empowered the trustees "to locate and establish 
their buildings in any town within the counties of Kennebec or 
Somerset," and it was voted by the trustees, in 1816, to estab- 
lish the school at W^aterville. 

No suitable building was available and after many difficulties, 
instruction under the auspices of the college was commenced on 



July 6, 1818, in a private house, by Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, who 
had accepted the professorship of theology, the students being 
those who had been studying for the ministry under him in 
Danvers, Mass. In 1817, Rev. J. Chase of VVestford, Vt., was 
elected professor of languages. In May, 1819, there were seven- 
teen students of theology. Rev. Avery Briggs was elected pro- 
fessor of languages in 1818, and in October, 1819, the literary 
department opened under his direction with some twenty-five 
students. Although founded by a religious denomination the 
institution was administered from the first in a broad and 
catholic spirit and, in 1820, this attitude was confirmed and 
enforced by an act of the Maine Legislature, providing that the 
corporation should have no rule or by-law requiring that any 
member of the trustees should be of any particular denomination 
and that no student should be deprived of any of the privileges 
of the nistitution on theological grounds. 

In the early part of the year 1820, the "President's House" 
and South College were completed and occupied and for the 
first time the infant college had a home of its own. 

The Legislature of Maine at its session in 1821 changed the 
name of the institution to "Waterville College," in accordance 
with the wishes of the trustees. With the new name came also 
a new organization, Rev. Daniel H. Barnes of New York being 
elected as president, which ofiice, however, he declined to accept 
and the college remained without a president until 1822, when Dr. 
Chaplin accepted the position which he retained until 1833. In 
1822, the first class, consisting of two members, was graduated 
and received the degree of A. B. The classes of 1823 and 1824 
numbered but three each. In 1829 the trustees established 
Waterville Academy, as a fitting school and feeder to the new 
college. About the same time, the "manual labor department" 
was added to the college, with the intention of afifording needy 
students an opportunity to pay a portion of the expense of their 
education. This department did not prove to be a success and, 
after adding each year to its indebtedness, was abolished in 
1842. In 1827, a department of matliematics and natural phil- 
osophv was established, rhetoric and Hebrew was added in 1831, 
and chemistry and natural history in 1836. In 1833, Rev. Rufus 
Babcock, Jr., was elected president. In 1836, he was succeeded 
bv Rev. Robert Patterson who, in turn, was, in 1841, succeeded 



94 

by Kev. Eliphaz Fay. . The Chapel building, containing, besides 
the chapel proper, recitation rooms and the library, was erected 
in 1839. This building is now known as Champlin Hall, while 
Old North College has become Chaplin Hall. Memorial Hall 
v/as built in 1867 and dedicated in 1869. It was erected as 
a memorial of the sons of the college who gave their lives to 
their country in the war of the rebellion. It contains the Chapel, 
Hall of the Alumni and Library. Coburn Hall, built in 1871 
and named in acknowledgement of Hon. Abner Coburn, is occu- 
pied by the departments of geology and zoology. The observ- 
atory and gymnasium were built in 1875. Ladies' Hall, situ- 
ated on College Avenue, near the college buildings, affords a 
pleasant home for the young women students and two other 
houses on the same avenue are devoted to their accommodation. 
The chemical laboratory was erected and equipped in 1899. 

In 1843, I^ev. D. N. Sheldon was elected president. He was 
succeeded, in 1853, by Rev. Robert E. Patterson, who was fol- 
lowed, in 1856, by Rev. James T. Champlin. Upon the resigna- 
tion of Dr. Champlin, m 1872, Rev. Henry E. Robbins was 
elected president. He was succeeded, in 1882, by Rev. Geo. 
D. B. Pepper, who was followed in 1889, by Albion W. Small, 
Ph. D. Dr. Small was succeeded, in 1892, by Rev. B. L. Whit- 
man, who retired in 1896, when Rev. Nathaniel Butler, D. D. 
accepted the position. Dr. Butler retired in 1901 and was suc- 
c«eded by President Charles L. White. The college had a 
continual struggle for existence until 1864, when Gardiner 
Colby, of Newton Center, Mass., offered to contribute $50,000 
as an endowment, provided an additional $100,000 could be 
secured. The condition was complied with and, in 1866, the 
college was placed upon a safe financial basis. In 1867, by act 
of the Legislature, the name of the institution was changed to 
Colby University. In 1871, women were first received on equal 
terms with men. In 1899, by request of the board of trustees, 
the name was again changed by act of the Legislature to Colby 
College. 

The benefactions of Mr. Colby, including the bequest received 
after his death, April 2, 1879, amounted to $200,000. The 
college has four affiliated academies in Maine, viz : Hebron 
Academy, Hebron; Coburn Classical Institute, Waterville; 
Ricker Classical Institute, Houlton, and Higgins Classical Insti- 



95 

tute, Charleston. These academies are under the general 
direction of the board of trustees of the college, and their grad- 
uates are admitted to Colby upon certificate of the principal, 
without individual examinations. The record made by Colby in 
the past does honor to the institution and to the State and its 
promise for the future is most flattering. 

BATES COLLEGE. 

Bates College, situated at Lewiston, and the pioneer of co-ed- 
ucation in New England, grew out of the Maine State Sem- 
inary, which was chartered by the State in 1855. In 1854 Par- 
son sfield Seminary, the only school in the State belonging to the 
Free Baptist denomination, was destroyed by fire. Rev. Oren 
B. Cheney, at that time pastor of the Free Baptist church in 
Augusta, at once set to work to establish in the central portion 
of the State an educational institution with a liberal endowment, 
and thus more than compensate to his denomination for the loss 
of the seminary. 

In October of that year the Free Baptist anniversary meetings 
were held in Saco. Here Mr. Cheney unfolded his plan, and at 
Ihe close of the convention a meeting of ministers and laymen 
was held, before which the matter was fully laid. The meeting 
became so interested in the matter as to appoint a committee to 
call a Free Baptist state convention to consider the enterprise 
more fully and take necessary action. The convention met at 
Topsham in the following November and, after full discussion, 
voted unanimously to establish the proposed school and also to 
continue the Parsonsfield Seminary, for which latter purpose 
the sum of two thousand dollars was pledged. A committee 
was appointed, consisting of Rev. Oren B. Cheney, Rev. Eben- 
ezer Knowlton and Francis Lyford, Esq., who were clothed 
with full power to establish the seminary, obtain a charter, 
secure, if possible, an endowment from the State, and to provide 
in such other ways as seemed feasible for its support. At the 
first meeting of this committee, held at the residence of Mr. 
Knowlton, in South Montville, a charter for the proposed insti- 
tution was drawn up, the name of the Maine State Seminary 
adopted, and a board of trustees elected. By the persistent 
efiforts of Mr. Cheney, an act was passed by the Legislature of 
1855, granting the charter and with it an appropriation of 



96 

$i5,ooo. By the terms of the act, five thousand dollars were 
granted for general purposes of the institution and ten thousand 
dollars in the bonds of the State for the nucleus of an endow- 
ment fund, the whole gift being upon condition that an equal 
sum should be raised for the new school by subscription. That 
amount was at once pledged by the citizens and corporations of 
Lewiston, the Franklin Company heading the list with a sub- 
scription of live thousand dollars, and the trustees decided to 
locate the school in that city. A site containing twenty acres 
was purchased of Ammi R. Nash, Esq., for about five thousand 
dollars, and on June 26th, 1856, the corner stone of Hathorn 
Hall, named in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Seth Hathorn, of Wool- 
wich, who contributed five thousand dollars towards its erection, 
was laid with appropriate ceremonies. Parker Hall, named for 
Hon. Thomas Parker, of Farmington, who had subscribed five 
thousand dollars, was commenced soon after. On Sept. ist, 
1857, the Maine State Seminary was opened for the reception 
of students, with Rev. Oren B. Cheney, A. M., as principal. 
The new school was liberally patronized from the start, its first 
class numbering one hundred and thirty-seven students. During 
the six years of its existence as a seminary it maintained an 
average of one hundred and fifty and graduated seventy-six 
}Oung men from its classical department. During the same time, 
forty-one young ladies were graduated from the full course. In 
the winter of 1862, through the influence of Mr. Cheney, the 
Legislature passed an act giving to the Maine State Seminary 
collegiate powers, including the right to confer degrees. At 
the annual meeting of the trustees in July, 1863, Mr. Cheney, 
with much energy, urged the adoption of a college organization 
and the immediate formation of a freshman class. His efforts 
were successful, and the trustees voted not only to form a Fresh- 
man class at the opening of the fall term, but also to change the 
name of the institution from Maine State Seminary to Bates 
College, and to ask the Legislature to legalize their action and 
to change the charter to conform to the vote. Rev. Oren B. 
Cheney, D. D., was elected president of the embryo college, with 
Levi W. Stanton, A. M., professor of Greek, Jonathan Y. Stan- 
ton A. M., professor of Latin, Selden F. Neal, A. M., professor 
of mathematics and Horace R. Cheney, A. B., tutor and librarian. 
The name of the college was chosen in honor of Hon. Benjamin 



97 

Edward Bates, A. M., of Boston, to whom President Cheney 
had confided his plans and who had pledged twenty-five thousand 
dollars towards the endowment of the college, provided seventy- 
five thousand dollars could be otherwise secured. In 1864, Mr. 
Bates made a second subscription of fifty thousand dollars for 
an additional building to complete the original plan and twenty- 
five thousand for an endowment on condition that twenty-five 
thousand should be obtained from other friends of the college. 
This condition was quickly met and the subscription was paid ; 
but upon mature deliberation it was agreed by Mr. Bates that 
the whole amount might be added to the endowment fund and 
the erection of the building postponed, provided thirty thousand 
dollars additional should be raised for permanent endowment. 
In 1873, he made another conditional subscription of one hun- 
dred thousand dollars to be met by an equal sum secured from 
other sources. Subscriptions amounting to the required sum 
were secured, but, owing to business depression, were not all 
paid. The college opened in the fall of 1863, with a freshman 
class of sixteen. At first the seminary remained as a part of the 
college. Out of the college preparatory class was developed 
the Latin school. The ladies' department of the seminary was 
presented to the Maine Central Institute at Pittsfield, and, in 
1870, the seminary was discontinued. In the same year a theo- 
logical department of the college was established and Nichols 
Hall, made vacant by the removal of the seminary, was appro- 
priated to its use. 

The charter of 1864 was amended by the Legislature in 1868, 
giving the right to establish the theological department and mak- 
ing some changes in the board of president and trustees. The 
complete charter, as it now stands, establishing the Board of 
Fellows and Overseers and giving the alumni a voice in the 
government of the college, was granted in 1873. In 1877, the 
floating debt of the institution had risen to $86,000, and the 
invested funds were reduced to about $120,000. In 1878, Mr. 
Bates died. He had not paid the $100,000 conditionally pledged 
and the court subsequently decided that his estate was not under 
obligation for its payment. 

During the next six years, by the efiforts of President Cheney 
and Professor Chase, sufficient funds were secured to give the 
college about $150,000 as a productive fund and an income of 
7 



98 

$i8,ooo. Subsequent gifts brought the productive fund of the 
college and of the Cobb divinity school, which in 1870 became 
a department of the college, up to $300,000 in 1891, with build- 
ings and grounds valued at $200,000. 

Professor George C. Chase was elected president in 1894. The 
course of study includes the classics, mathematics, modern lan- 
guages, English literature, rhetoric, political economy, science, 
psychology, logic and the evidences of Christianity. More than 
forty per cent, of the graduates of Bates have become teachers 
and more city high schools in New England are taught by gradu- 
ates of Bates than by graduates of any other college. Its pro- 
fessors have been devotedly loyal during its periods of struggle 
and hardship and by their self-sacrificing zeal have contributed 
very much to ensure the prosperity the college now enjoys. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE. 

By an act of Congress, approved July 2, 1862, it was 
provided that there should be granted to the States, 
from the public lands "thirty thousand acres for each 
senator and representative in congress" from the sale of which 
there should be established a perpetual fund "the interest of 
which shall be inviolably appropriated by each state which may 
tak? and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support 
and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object 
shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies 
nnd including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning 
as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such man- 
ner as the legislatures of the states may respectively prescribe, 
m order to promote the liberal and practical education of the 
industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." 
The act forbade the use of any portion of the principal or interest 
of this fund for the purchase, erection or maintenance of build- 
ings and required each state taking the benefit of the provisions 
of the act "to provide within five years not less than one college" 
to carry out the purposes of the act. 

Maine accepted this grant in 1863, and in 1865 constituted "a 
body politic and corporate by the name of the trustees of the 
State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts." The 
trustees were authorized to receive and hold donations, to select 
the professors and other officers of the college, to establish the 



99 

conditions for admission, to prepare courses of study, to grant 
degrees and to execute other powers and privileges. 

The Governor and Council were given the right "to examine 
into the affairs of the college and the doings of the trustees and 
to inspect all their records and accounts and the buildings anB 
premises occupied by the college." 

The State of Maine received, under the act of congress above 
referred to, two hundred and ten thousand acres of public lands 
from which the university has realized an endowment fund of 
$118,300. This has been increased by a bequest of $100,000 
from Abner Coburn, of Skowhegan, who was for many years 
president of the board of trustees. 

The town of Orono contributed $8,000 and the town of Old 
Town $3,000 for the purchase of the site on which the buildings 
now stand. The State has appropriated about $300,000 for the 
material equipment. 

After the conditions of the act of 1862 were accepted by the 
Legislature it remained a matter of discussion whether the new 
institution should be a separate college or should be united with 
one of the colleges already established. Governor Coburn, in 
1863, and Governor Cony, in 1864, favored union with one of 
the existing colleges. A board of commissioners was appointed 
to consider the matter and their report recommended that the 
new institution be connected with Bowdoin College. This plan 
was vigorously opposed by the State Board of Agriculture, sup- 
ported by the agricultural press of the State. After a lengthy 
discussion the Legislature decided in favor of establishing an 
independent college. 

The first meeting of the trustees was held in April, 1865. In 
January, 1866, the board of trustees voted to locate the college 
at Orono, on a farm of three hundred and seventy-six acres 
given by the towns of Old Town and Orono. In 1867, the Legis- 
lature appropriated twenty thousand dollars to erect two build- 
ings and furnish apparatus for the new college, and the next 
year ten thousand dollars were voted to complete the buildings. 
There were upon the farm two sets of farm buildings which 
were fitted up, one for the farm superintendent and the other 
for the first professor. 

In 1869, the Legislature voted twenty-eight thousand dollars 
for the use of the college. In September, 1868, the first class, 



lOO 

consisting of twelve students, was admitted. The faculty at 
that time consisted of Merritt C. Fernald, M. A., professor of 
mathematics, and Samuel Johnson, farm superintendent and 
instructor in agriculture. In the following year Stephen F. 
Peckham was elected professor of chemistry and soon after John 
Swift was added as instructor in botany and horticulture. In 
these first years temporary lecturers on special topics were 
employed. 

In 1871, Rev. Charles F. Allen, D. D., was chosen the first 
president of the college and continued in that position until 1878. 
He was succeeded by Pres. Merritt C. Fernald, during whose 
administration the college was placed upon a substantial founda- 
tion and the several courses of study were developed. In 1893, 
Pres. Fernald retired from the presidency and accepted the posi- 
tion of professor of philosophy, and Abram Winegardner 
Harris, Sc D., was elected president. Dr. Harris resigned in 
1 90 1 and the chair was temporarily filled by Pres. Fernald until 
a choice was made of Dr. George Emory Fellows of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago. An experiment, station was established in con- 
nection with the college in 1887. 

The Legislature of 1897 changed the name of the institution 
to "The University of Maine." The university is now divided 
into colleges, each offering several courses upon related subjects. 
The colleges are interdependent and together form a unit. They 
are as follows : College of Arts and Sciences ; College of Agri- 
culture ; College of Engineering ; College of Pharmacy ; School 
of Law. There are also short courses in agriculture for the 
benefit of students who are unable to devote the time and money 
required for a full course. 

Under an act of Congress approved March 2, 1887, the univer- 
sity receives $15,000 annually for the maintenance of the experi- 
ment station. Under an act of Congress approved August 30, 
1890, the university receives for its more complete endowment 
and maintenance $25,000 annually. 

Under an act of the Legislature approved March 20, 1897, the 
university receives $20,000 annually from the State for current 
expenses. 

The buildings now occupied by the university are as follows : 
Wingate Hall was erected for the departments of civil and 
mechanical engineering. Oak Hall, used as a dormitory for men, 



lOI 



contains forty-nine study rooms for students, bath rooms and 
a room occupied by the Young Men's Christian Association. 
Fernald Hall contains fifteen rooms devoted to the departments 
of chemistry and pharmacy. Coburn Hall contains the reading 
rooms and library, laboratories for the departments of agricul- 
ture, botany and entomology and recitation rooms for a number 
of departments. This building also contains the museum, the 
chapel and the president's office. The observatory contains a 
seven and one-half inch refractor and an excellent equipment 
of astronomical instruments. The machine shop contains the 
foundry, forge shop, carpenter shop, machine shop and tool 
room. An adjoining building contains the dynamos, motors and 
storage battery. The drill hall and gymnasium, erected in 1900, 
will contain when completed, the offices of the president, secretary 
and cashier, a board room, two recitation rooms and the private 
office of the professor of mathematics. The university chapel 
will be located in the second story. In the basement are the 
usual appliances for gymnasium work. The drill hall proper 
is 100 by 62 feet and is encircled by a 9-foot running track sus- 
pended from the roof. The experiment station building is 
thoroughly equipped with the necessary apparatus for the work 
of the station. The horticultural building contains a head house, 
three greenhouses, conservatory, laboratory and offices. The 
dairy building contains a milk room, butter room, cheese room, 
cold storage room, cheese curing room, lecture room, office and 
laboratory. The Mt. Vernon House is the women's dormitory 
and contains sixteen study rooms, each arranged for two stu- 
dents. The fraternity houses are four in number, three being 
located upon the campus and one in the village of Orono. In 
addition to the buildings enumerated, there are six others devoted 
to various purposes. Among these are the president's house, 
the commons, or general boarding house, and three residences 
occupied by members of the faculty. The university has at 
present forty-eight instructors, including the president and 
faculty. The total assets for the present year, including endow- 
ment, buildings and other property, amount to $466,200, and the 
amount available for current expenses is $90,828. The number 
of students enrolled is three hundred sixty-five. 

The graduates of this institution are occupying prominent and 
lucrative positions in the different professions and industries in 
which they are engaged. 



I02 



BANGOR THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 



The Bangor Theological Seminary was founded under 
the name of "The Maine Charity School" by the Society 
for "Promoting Theological Instruction." The seminary 
was opened at Hampden, in 1816, under the charge of 
Jehudi Askman. In 1819 it was removed to Bangor. The 
seminary was originally intended to prepare for the ministry 
students who had not received a previous collegiate training. 
The first two years were to be devoted to classical studies and 
the last two years to theological studies. The two years clas 
sical course was discontinued in 1836. For the first twenty 
years the seminary had little or no endowment. It now has an 
endowment of $225,000 and buildings and grounds valued at 
$65,000. The course of study is practically the same as that 
pursued in the principal theological seminaries. The seminary 
has sent out about eight hundred graduates and has educated 
for one or more years without graduation, some two hundred 
and fifty more. Among the professors who have held positions 
in Bangor Theological Seminary are included many men who 
have been prominent leaders of religious thought. 

COBB DIVINITY SCHOOL. 

This school, which is the oldest higher institution of 
learning in the Free Baptist denomination, was founded 
in 1840, as a library department in connection with Par- 
sonsfield Seminary. The name was, in 1842, changed to 
Biblical department and, in September of that year, it was 
moved to Dracut, Mass., as an independent Biblical school. 

In November, 1844, it moved again to Whitestown, N. Y., 
where it remained until the fall of 1854, when it was transferred 
to New Hampton, N. H. Here it remained until it was estab- 
lished at Lewiston in 1870, as a department of Bates College. 

At its founding Rev. Moses M. Smart was placed at the head 
of the school, which position he held until 1848. In 1844, Rev. 
J. J. Butler was associated with Professor Smart as professor 
of theology, remaining with the school until 1873. In 1850, Rev. 
John Fullonton became professor of Hebrew and church history, 
retaining his connection with the school until 1894. On Septem- 



I03 

ber 12, 1894, Rev. Benjamin F. Hayes, who had been connected 
with the school since 1870, assumed the chair of apologetics and 
pastoral theology. In 1872, Rev. James A. Howe became pro- 
fessor of dogmatic theology and afterwards of homiletics. 
Thomas Hill Rich became professor of Hebrew in 1872 and con- 
tinued to hold that position until his death in 1893. In 1890, 
Rev. Alfred W. Anthony became professor of New Testament 
exegesis and criticism. Rev. Herbert R. Purinton was made 
instructor in Hebrew and church history in June, 1894, and was 
promoted to the full professorship in June, 1895. I" 1888, in 
recognition of a gift of $25,000 from Hon. J. L. H. Cobb, of 
Lewiston, the name of the school was changed to Cobb Divinity 
School. A new building for the exclusive use of the school was 
erected in 1895 by Mr. Lewis W. Anthony. These gifts, with 
others received from time to time, have placed the school upon a 
sound financial basis. 

In June, 1894, a Biblical Training school was established for 
the benefit of students not qualified to enter the divinity school. 

EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

The first State convention of teachers ever held in Maine 
met at Waterville, November 16, 1859, and continued in session 
three days. The exercises consisted of lectures and discussions. 
Lectures were delivered by Rev. E. B. Webb of Augusta, on the 
"Life and Character of Hugh Miller ;" by Dr. N. T. True upon 
"The Elements of Power;" by Rev. Cyril Pearle, upon "The 
Teachers' Vocation;" by E. P. Weston, upon "The School- 
master and the Source of his Authority ;" by Isaiah Dole, upon 
"The Elements of General Grammar ;" by Rev. Jonas Burnham, 
upon "The Duties of the Teacher ;" by Walter Wells, upon "Sun- 
power." 

The following subjects were discussed : "Best mode of teach- 
ing morals," "Prizes and rewards," "Mathematics and languages 
in public education," "Normal Schools in Maine," "Natural 
sciences in public schools." 

An organization was afifected under the name of the Maine 
Educational Association, a constitution was adopted and provis- 
ion made for an annual meeting. 

In 1868, the Legislature appropriated two hundred dollars for 
the benefit of this association, which was its first official recogni- 



Ill I 
104 019 876 169 2 

tion. The influence and efforts of the association had an 
encouraging effect upon the teaching force of the State and 
helped to advance the cause of education by timely recommenda- 
tions in favor of the abolition of the district system, of the estab- 
lishment of free high schools, of free text-books, normal schools, 
libraries and the extension of the school year. 

In 1882, the association transferred its records and property 
to the Maine Pedagogical Society. 

The Maine Teachers' Association was organized in 1876 and 
held regular meetings until 1879, when it also became merged 
in the Maine Pedagogical Society. This society was organized 
at Waterville, May 7, 1880. Its object was "the consideration 
and discussion of all questions relating to the organization and 
government of schools, methods of instruction, professional n 
standards and the principles which should control the policy and 
leghlation of the State in respect to education. 

In 1892, a council was chosen to prepare topics for discussion 
at the meetings of the society and to present to the Legislature 
such measures as the society approves. At the annual meeting 
in 1901 the name of the "Maine Pedagogical Society" was 
changed to the "Maine Teachers' Association" and a new consti- 
tution, containing many important changes, was adopted. 

The Schoolmasters' Club was organized at Brunswick in 1892, 
for the promotion of acquaintance and the development of a 
community of interest among the presidents and professors of 
colleges and the principals of academies, high schools and normal 
schools of the State. 

The Maine Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools 
was organized in the hall of the House of Representatives, at 
Augusta, on Oct. 27, 1900. The constitution provides that the 
membership shall be made up of presidents, professors and other 
teachers in Maine colleges, the heads of Maine schools giving a 
four years' preparatory course, and other teachers giving college 
preparatory instruction, and that the time of meeting shall be the 
fourth Friday in October of each year. 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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